To detect leaks in water systems, Southern Water is converting existing fiber optic telecommunications cables into underground sensors. Report Register.
To do this, the company uses Lightsonic technology, which uses fiber optic networks from supplier Openreach to detect leaking pipes. The latter is BT’s infrastructure arm. Affinity Water, the utility company that serves parts of southern England, trialled a similar system in March.
It was reported at the time that the system could even analyze tiny changes in the way light “propagates” along fiber optic cables to detect vibrations caused by nearby underground leaks. Machine learning helps distinguish such signals from vibrations caused by traffic, roadworks and other background “noise” and makes it possible to identify the location of water leaks.
The resulting location data allows engineers to investigate pipeline incidents and repair leaks more quickly, according to Lightsonic. It is said that the technology has prevented the loss of more than 1 million liters of water per day in the UK’s water supply network with a total length of about 650 kilometers.
Southern Water began introducing the technology after one of the UK’s hottest and driest summers. According to official figures, nearly three-quarters of England is suffering from drought. Meanwhile, southern England has historically faced water shortages.
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The company said the decision to start testing was influenced by the success interaction Affinity Water, Lightsonic and Openreach. The trial is expected to help Southern Water meet the targets of Ofwat, the wastewater regulator for England and Wales. It can also help improve drought resilience by reducing pressure on reservoirs and reducing water withdrawals.
Southern Water provides water and sewerage services to parts of Hampshire, West and East Sussex and Kent, as well as the Isle of Wight in the English Channel.
The company said it has reduced the volume of network leaks for the third consecutive year and continues to invest in innovative solutions to detect and eliminate leaks.
At the same time, the company’s wastewater treatment situation is also very ordinary. Courts recently fined the company £2.4 million ($3.1 million) for a number of environmental pollution incidents in Kent, while back in July Southern Water was fined £7.1 million ($9.4 million) for illegal drainage, which resulted in the closure of beaches in the Thanet (Kent) area. The litigants in both cases were the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.
In the UK, they often resort to collaborations between utility companies and telecoms companies. Therefore, there were reports as early as 2022 that in Arcadis, South Yorkshire will test Laying fiber optics in water pipes. Similar technologies in 2024 application Providing broadband internet to one of the UK’s most remote islands, Papawestray in Orkney.
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