Artificial intelligence helps reduce water leaks

Leaks are found and fixed "before customers even notice", says SES Water

A Surrey water company is one of the first in the UK to use artificial intelligence (AI) across its whole network to reduce leaks.

Sutton and East Surrey (SES) Water has installed 1000 sensors underground that monitor flow and pressure, then send data back to base.

The technology also provides a prediction of what levels should be, so if a leak happens, an alarm is raised within minutes and engineers are deployed.

Innovation manager Jeremy Heath said: "In many cases we are repairing that pipe before customers even notice a slight drop in their pressure.”

“It allows us to react, get the crews out really quickly and get the repairs done," he added.

According to the regulator Ofwat, about a fifth of all water put into the network in England and Wales is lost due to leakage.

SES Water said it is on schedule to cut leakage by 15% over the five years to the end of next year and believes the project is the first of its kind in the water industry.

Liam Ahearne, Head of Asset Strategy said: “Our smart network has enabled us to reduce our leakage run rate times by up to 40%.

Jeremy Heath said the technology helps the team repair pipes so quickly that customers do not notice a drop in pressure

SES Water supplies 160 million litres (35 million gallons) of water to 300,000 homes and businesses across parts of Surrey, Kent and South London.

The company’s leakage record is one of the best in the country, but according to figures from 2022/23 it still loses 76 litres (17 gallons) per property per day.

However, the company said it is on target to reduce that by four litres (one gallon) per day by the end of 2025, resulting in a saving of nearly half an Olympic-sized swimming pool every day.

Stuart Singleton-White, head of campaigns at the Angling Trust said SES Water's reduction target was "nowhere near good enough".

"We're in real danger in the south east of England of running out of water, and that could be as soon as a decade away," he said.

He said this was due to consumers using too much water as well as "the scandal of leakage" happening in the water system due to lack of investment.

In its business plan, SES Water has committed to reduce leakage by 26.5% over the ten years to 2030.