Black & Veatch and Inflowmatix Join Forces to Meet Leakage Challenge
Partnership’s leading-edge, digitally-enabled approach to water network management offers path to compliance with stringent new leakage reduction targets
REDHILL, United Kingdom, June 18, 2019 /3BL Media/ – Against a challenging backdrop of increased water scarcity and service resilience, water companies in England and Wales have been tasked with achieving on average a 15 percent reduction in leakage by 2025. The result is the most ambitious leakage programme in 20 years. Success will require leading-edge, digitally-enabled network management of the kind pioneered by a new partnership between Black & Veatch and Inflowmatix.
The partnership will help UK water companies develop ‘healthy,’ resilient water networks, and reduce losses, by combining Black & Veatch’s programme management, logistics, delivery and analytics expertise with Inflowmatix’s unique analytics, patented technologies and dynamic (near time) pressure sensing devices. The first result of this collaboration is SERENE, a service offering for the UK water markets that will provide network insights through a district metered area (DMA) Health Index assessment.
“By assessing where the network is most at risk and exposing its dynamic pressure variability our technologies provide a network behaviour narrative,” according to Inflowmatix’s Dr. Mike Williams, CEO, “This can be used to inform and implement proactive control strategies while expediting the location and resolution of leakage within the network.”
The DMA Health Index provides water companies with the foundation for a data and insight driven strategy to understand how and where investment to reduce leakage can be targeted most effectively.
“New technologies are a key enabler to helping water companies weather a perfect storm of increasing demand, falling revenues and climate change. We partner with companies, like Inflowmatix, who offer the most promising technologies; and help them achieve utility scale and interoperability,” according to Mark Kaney, Asset Management Director, Black & Veatch Europe. “In this way we are helping water companies better understand the risks and potential benefits of trialing and deploying new, innovative technologies.”
The Inflowmatix partnership is the latest example of Black & Veatch’s drive to help clients deliver predictive performance insights, and resilience across their assets – by using leading-edge digitally-enabled real-time decision making, artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
In February 2019 the company announced a tie-up with AI and machine learning experts EMAGIN. In March 2019 Black & Veatch launched a Smart Maintenance business combining technology-driven maintenance methodologies and automation with hands-on utility engineering expertise - to create digitally enabled maintenance teams.
Black & Veatch has also created ECO-X, a cloud-based digital ecosystem, to enable integration with partners like Inflowmatix - facilitating the deployment of digitally enabled solutions across the lifecycle of clients’ assets.
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Click here to download a supporting image: The partnership will help UK water companies develop ‘healthy,’ resilient water networks
Editor’s Notes:
- Ofwat, the water industry’s economic regulator for England and Wales, is challenging companies to reduce leakage by 15 per cent as part of their 2020 – 2025 asset management programmes.
- Black & Veatch Water Europe and Inflowmatix have signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership.
About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2018 were $3.5 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and in social media.
About Inflowmatix
Founded in 2015 as a spin out from Imperial College London, Inflowmatix works closely with water industry specialists, engineering experts, and world-class academics to bring cutting edge research and technology to water utilities around the world. By mapping where the customer’s network is most at risk and exposing dynamic pressure variability, Inflowmatix is committed to helping water network operators control pressures and optimise their services including resilience, asset management, leakage and water quality in order to keep their customers supplied.
Media contacts
Black & Veatch
MALCOLM HALLSWORTH | +44 1737 856594 p | +44 7920 701764 m | HallsworthM@BV.com
24-HOUR MEDIA HOTLINE | +1 866 496 9149
Inflowmatix
SHARON FINNEY | +447789 390331 | sharon.finney@inflowmatix.com
