Case study: BT Group

Waterscan help BT Group reduce water consumption by 5.4% this financial year.

The background

BT Group has engaged Waterscan as its water efficiency specialist for the last decade. Waterscan's systematic approach and innovative solutions have helped deliver annual reductions in water consumption with a healthy 5.4% reduction this financial year - equivalent to the annual domestic use of town the size of Swindon.

The solution

With over 6,00 properties, many of them unmanned exchanges, the plan for 2008/9 was to concentrate on leak detection and repair, AMR (automatic meter reading) data logging and surface water drainage.

Key sites are identified as suitable for a logger installation; the remote data is then sent from the logger to Waterline, Waterscan's unique online water management system, and immediate SMS fluctuation alerts are sent out to Waterscan's operations team when consumption exceeds benchmarked expectation.

In 2007 Waterscan employed a surface water specialist to work with the Waterline bill validation team. By using the latest mapping software and analysis of the water bills they immediately identified sites with potential savings.

The outcome

To date, Waterscan has installed 597 loggers throughout the UK transmitting data through monthly billing reports via Waterline for direct site comparison. Waterscan have completed 42 leak repairs in the financial year and the Waterline team have negotiated £116,477 of leak rebates for BT Group.

The surface water project has delivered over £380,000 of new annual savings particularly in the United Utilities and Scottish Water regions.