Satellite Broadband Improves Customer Services

11/09/2008

Yorkshire Water, a subsidiary of Kelda, manages the collection, treatment and distribution of water to domestic and business customers across Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire.  Each day, the company supplies around 1.24 billion litres of drinking water, the equivalent of a glass of water for every person on the planet and collects, treats and disposes of about one billion litres of waste water safely back into the environment. 

The company operates more than 700 water and sewage treatment works, 120 reservoirs and over 40,000 miles of water and sewerage mains.  Although many of these pipes were constructed back in the 19th century, they are still in use today and Yorkshire Water is committed to maintaining them in good working order and continually improving them for future generations to protect public health, the environment and public water supply.

 The Challenge

 Yorkshire Water wanted to improve communications between head office and remote locations as part the Clearwater project that aims to take advantage of the latest technological innovations that will improve customer service, reduce the need to interrupt water supplies when working on pipes and identify problems before they impact on the water supply. In particular, it wanted to replace the GSM-based communications technology being used throughout the organisation with a more resilient and reliable solution that could provide high-speed access to key data around the clock. 

The Solution

After attending a number of demonstrations where the capabilities of different systems were examined, Excelerate Technology was asked to provide a static satellite-based solution to improve communications between an unmanned station containing high tech monitoring and control equipment situated just outside Thirsk and the company’s headquarters in Bradford. Excelerate Technology installed a 96cm satellite dish and modem that was integrated with the IT infrastructure situated at this remote station to provide secure, high-speed broadband.  This replaced the GSM-based system that was previously used and delivered an immediate improvement in the speed in which real-time data could be transmitted to Yorkshire Water’s headquarters as well as providing higher levels of resilience and reliability.  The new technology has enabled Yorkshire Water to react faster to changing conditions and meet its quality standards. 

Yorkshire Water also asked Excelerate Technology to provide a transportable satellite solution to improve communications for a number of key applications.  To prove the concept of this technology, Excelerate Technology agreed to provide a working solution that could be trialled in different environments.   A 96 cm satellite dish was installed on one of Yorkshire Water’s operations support vehicles with rack mounted satellite controller, modem and UPS.  In addition, the vehicle was equipped with a laptop computer and video server that would capture and store video images from existing camera systems or streamed via satellite for secure viewing by multiple users at any Internet-enabled location.  This vehicle was put to immediate use by teams working on pipes to identify problems before they impact on the water supply.  Using an endoscope camera, an instrument traditionally used in the veterinary and medical industries, non-disruptive inspections of pipes could be carried out to quickly identify the exact point of any burst and eliminate the need to dig multiple holes along the route of the pipe.  As well as reducing disruption on the roads, this can be carried out without interrupting the supply to customers as water is still able to flow through the pipe when the camera is down there.

The transportable satellite solution enables video images taken by this endoscope to be instantly viewed by specialist technicians based both at Yorkshire Water’s headquarters and at other locations across the region to analyse the problem and determine the most effective solution.  The required actions can then be taken by the onsite team without the delays that were previously caused by having to drive back to base to replay recordings made on traditional camcorders.

According to Steve Groves, senior IT professional at Yorkshire Water: “Excelerate Technology has provided us with a cost effective solution that transmits recorded images using high speed broadband links via satellite.  It has enabled faster resolution of leaks and made a major contribution towards helping Yorkshire Water meet leakage targets set by ofwat, the water regulator.  Our vision is to be clearly the best water company in the UK and Excelerate Technology is helping us achieving it.”

In fact, the latest figures published by Ofwat show that Yorkshire has met leakage targets for the tenth year running.  Overall leakage has been cut by more than 45 per cent since 1995 which is more than enough water to meet the daily demands of North Humberside.  The company was awarded the title "Utility Company of the year" by Utility Week magazine three years in succession from 2004 to 2006.

After a successful trial, the equipment was permanently installed in one of Yorkshire Water’s operational support vehicles which is also used to provide communications support at major incidents and training exercises.  It has even been used to provide essential communications backup for Yorkshire Water’s HQ during recent floods enabling all business continuity and contingency planning requirements to be met.