SME Water hopes there’ll be demand for its idea to reduce leakage

Meet SME Water, one of the suppliers joining our Innovation Lab.

Could you tell us how you found out about the Innovation Lab and why you decided to pitch your idea? 

We found out about the Innovation Lab from United Utilities’ LinkedIn profile. We saw the Lab as an opportunity to develop our idea and were interested in the structure of the Innovation Lab, as this wasn’t a format we have been involved in before. With our team being from the North West, United Utilities’ data gives us a great opportunity to study and understand areas of the UK Water Network that we are already familiar with and believe we can offer real insight into.

In simple terms, could you please summarise what your product does? 

Our Component Demand Analysis Model (CDAM) solution uses flow data from across United Utilities’ network to understand why customers demand changes throughout the year.

What is the ultimate benefit your idea will bring to water customers in the North West? 

By ensuring that United Utilities can accurately differentiate new leakage on the network from changes in customer demand, Leakage Teams can target new leaks as quickly as possible to reduce lost water and the impact on their customers. 

How are you hoping to develop your idea through the Innovation Lab? 

Including United Utilities data in our model will improve the accuracy of the overall model. By working closely with stakeholders across the company, we can ensure that the model is used effectively by the teams that will benefit from it and identify additional use cases and improvements to the solution.

How important do you think programmes like the Innovation Lab are for developing ideas? 

The format of the Innovation Lab provides companies a great opportunity to work alongside industry experts. We have been astounded by the enthusiasm and engagement we have had from United Utilities so far and we’re excited for the next few months, as we believe the Lab will really supercharge our innovation.

What does innovation mean to you in three words? 

• Disruption
• Gamechanger 
• Collaboration 

If you fast forward two years from now, where do you see your product?

Like all statistical models, our solution will benefit from an increased sample size. We would like to include as many UK Water Companies as possible in our analysis so we can deliver benefit to as many customers as possible.