Thames Water is using a central project management
system to locate and fix leaks as it embarks on a one-year, £3.9m
programme to replace ageing water pipes across North
London.
As the UK prepares for a summer of water shortages, the utility
company has expanded its use of a Windows-based project management
and planning suite called Open Plan from Deltek to help solve the
problem of water wastage. Last July, Thames Water was officially
criticised by regulator Ofwat for losing 915 million litres of
water a day through leaks.
Open Plan will help the utility company to track water leakage,
plan current and future projects, and create reports that include
graphical maps.
“Ofwat requires certain outputs at certain times, showing, for
example, that a certain length of pipe is in the ground. They want
to know that we are spending the right amounts of money, linked
with how much customers are charged, and we need to demonstrate
that at any time,” said Paul Smith, commercial manger at Thames
Water.
Open Plan integrates with a large standalone database systems,
which was written by a member of Thames Water’s IT department, and
holds information on resources, contractors, timings, geographical
areas and councils.
The database also holds information on the age of pipes and
types of soil present in different areas, said Smith. It is used by
around 50 people who are involved with the upgrade projects.
Open Plan also has an interface with Thames Water’s timesheet
and corporate finance systems, which are “very old” and due for
replacement next year, said Smith.
The system is supported by consultancy firm Accenture, as part
of the five-year, £87m outsourcing deal signed with the utility
company in 2002.
Thames Water will run between 10 and 20 projects simultaneously,
with the projects centring on upgrading one of 1,000 areas of
London, each of which have around 15km of pipe in them.
The current pipe replacement programme began at the start of
April with the Hackney Downs area. The programme aims to replace
10% of London’s Victorian cast iron pipes with more durable plastic
ones in the next five years.