Atmos has completed phase one of a trunk mains leak detection pilot project with Northumbrian Water which aims to quickly detect and alert on new leaks forming in upstream water trunk mains pipelines.
This opportunity for Atmos emerged at Northumbrian Water’s 2022 Innovation Festival, where Northumbrian Water’s Procurement team led a Dragon’s Den style pitch event, where a shortlist of suppliers were invited to pitch for investment in their solutions covering all areas of the business.
Atmos’ Business Development Director for water Martin Duff and Sales & Senior Research Engineer Harry Smith led Atmos’ pitch for funding a project on smart water pipeline leak detection.
As one of only three shortlisted companies, Atmos secured investment to undertake a trunk mains leak detection pilot project and has successfully completed the first phase.
Phase one
From kick off and site surveys to hardware installations and site visits, phase one of the Northumbrian Water trunk mains leak detection pilot project focused on two large diameter pipelines that supply clean water to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
Phase one consisted of site visits to perform routine health checks on Atmos’ high performance hardware instrumentation, conducting calibration leak tests and ensuring valuable data continues to be collected for analysis. The monitored pipeline section in phase one was 6 km long.
Figure 1: The pipelines involved in phase one of the trunk mains leak detection pilot project
Figure 2: Example trunk mains leakage data extracted by hardware instrumentation on site at Northumbrian Water
Speaking on the success of phase one, Business Development Director for water at Atmos, Martin Duff said “I’m delighted with the results of our hardware and software solution on Northumbrian Water’s transmission network so far.
This success of the phase one pilot project has been a culmination of effort from Atmos’ Sales, Operations and R&D teams together with Northumbrian Water’s Operations, Technical & Procurement teams, so I’m thrilled to see the hard work pay off and I’m excited to see that success continue into phase two.
Northumbrian Water was the first UK water utility to invest in our concept, so it’s great to be able to demonstrate the value we can add to their business and end users.”
Commenting on Atmos’ performance in the pilot project so far, Andrew Charleton, Strategic Networks Area Supervisor at Northumbrian Water said “the trunk mains leak location accuracy we’ve seen so far has been magnificent. It’s a really positive step forward to revolutionizing leak detection and we’re pleased to be working in partnership with Atmos.”
Phase two: what’s next?
With Atmos now being able to evidence that the technology can reliably detect and locate leaks on two large diameter pipelines that supply clean water to the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, Atmos will initiate phase two of the trunk mains leak detection pilot project in 2024, which will involve integrating the leak detection solution into an online environment to assess various communication options and monitor more complex pipeline sections within Northumbrian Water’s network.
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