Yorkshire Water’s Hadfield smart water network pilot project in Sheffield is continuing to evolve, with the introduction of the Idrica GoAigua platform. 

The UK's largest smart water network encompassing a hydraulic digital twin, which comprises more than 300km of water pipes and reaches over 60,000 properties, will now benefit from the smart water platform. 

GoAigua transforms water utilities into smarter, more proactive and resilient entities by consolidating vast amounts of data. 

It solves key water network challenges by unifying all digital components of water utility infrastructure into a single platform. 

Six thousand sensors have been deployed into Yorkshire Water’s network in Sheffield and the surrounding area, which are helping monitor flow, pressure, transient, water quality, acoustic, hydrophone and advanced metering infrastructure. 

This cutting-edge system will reduce costs, optimise asset life as well as improve efficiency, planning processes, and leak detection for Yorkshire Water. 

As the main consultant on the project, Stantec worked with Xylem to introduce Idrica’s GoAigua platform which will support greater digitalisation across its network, enhancing and expanding the work already laid out in the previous phases of the project. 

It is hoped the introduction of the new platform will ultimately lead to completely automated operations of clean water networks in Sheffield and across the region. 

Sam Bright, Yorkshire Water innovation programme manager, said: “We’re constantly looking to improve the way we manage our networks, and to continue to drive down leakage by using the latest advancements in technology. 

“We’re very excited to bring together all the learnings from our smart networks programme of activity over the past few years within GoAigua, and to see it delivering value at scale.”  

Damian Crawford, Stantec’s head of smart networks, said: “Moving to Idrica GoAigua is the next evolution of this incredible journey with Yorkshire Water to deliver a smarter, more resilient water network.

“We have shown that through industry collaboration, AI, machine learning and harnessing big data, we can revolutionise the way we manage water networks and deliver efficiencies while improving outcomes and customer serviceability. 

“The next step is to create a smart water cycle, focussing on end-to-end sustainability, while enhancing the environment and delivering outstanding customer service.”