Pipe up: Stuart White

“Innovation is everywhere I look every day, and all contributing towards putting downward pressure on bills”

I read the headline “Where’s the innovation?” on Dr Jerry Bryan’s Chief Executive’s View in Utility Week on 13 December and almost choked on my mince pie.
The innovation is right here. It is everywhere I look every day, and all contributing towards putting downward pressure on bills and getting the best possible value for our customers. You all would have heard about our phosphorous removal and recovery plant at Slough sewage works, but that’s just the tip of a giant Thames Water iceberg. Here are just some of our innovations.
We are the first water company in the UK to introduce smart metering. Our programme kicked off in Bexley this month and customers there, and across the whole of London over time, will be able to view their detailed water usage data online. The technology gives people more control over water use, helps us identify and fix customer-side leaks, and it’s hoped it will encourage households to be more water-efficient.
We have a £250 million thermal hydrolysis plant (THP) programme – energy from poo – firing on all cylinders, on top of our long-running energy recovery process, and have recently ramped up the heat in Basingstoke. We’ll be spending the next two years refining and developing the demonstration facility with the aim of achieving our target to renewably self-generate 20 per cent of our annual energy requirements by 2015. And we are on track.
Poo power is old news, though, according to Albion Water’s Bryan. So what about the Bucher press in Oxford, which squeezes the water out of sludge in the same way brewers make cider out of apples? We went from pilot to full-scale installation in a year and will see a reduction in sludge tankering costs and increased energy recovery.
Ever heard of biobullets? These have been successfully trialled at Coppermills water works, east London, to shoot down zebra mussels that block pipes from the reservoir.
Also in Walthamstow, a Mecana Pile Cloth filter pilot plant will be installed to assess its performance as a low-cost, high-rate alternative to rapid gravity filters and to stop algae entering the works. We also think we’ve found an alternative aluminium-based coagulant chemical which works better, costs less and needs less acid and alkali. This will be trialled at Swinford water treatment works, Oxfordshire, and is expected to save almost £100,000 a year.
Combined with our eight2O alliance team, Thames Water is looking to push innovation into the next five years of capital investment so we can protect the environment and deliver value for customers in a sustainable fashion.