Apprentices, technology and leak detection with Wayne Novelli

Affinity Water uses new technology to repair leaks faster and trains up a new generation of apprentices in leak detection Following the big freeze thaw of this Winter Affinity Water is explaining to its customers how it is investing in and improving its leak detection work to find and fix leaks faster. It is already half-way to meeting its target to cut leakage by 20 per cent by 2020/2025 and by using a multi-pronged approach the Company is confident it is on track to achieve this commitment to its customers. In a new podcast Wayne Novelli, the Business Lead for Active Leakage Control at Affinity Water, explains how investing in new technology and learning how to use it better, while also recruiting and training up a new generation of leakage technicians is helping the Company to improve its leakage performance. He says: “We are trying to find ways of detecting and fixing leaks that are not reliant on acoustics. AI is helping us, and we are also building digital networks, and using situational tools which are still in the early stages of development. All this does help us narrow down an area when we have a problem, it makes our surveys more efficient”. He gives us a fascinating insight into how the practices of detecting leaks in the past on old metallic pipes has now given way to using tools such as hydrophones on more modern plastic pipework so they can listen through water. Even so, the traditional methods of employing Leakage Technicians who use metal listening sticks to listen for leaks is still part of the evolving new mix. Any noise such as that generated by traffic, aeroplanes, trains, wind and rain, people moving about, can make the job of listening for leaks that much more complex. Mr Novelli is interviewed by a road, allowing the podcast audience to hear for itself how difficult it is to hear above traffic noise. In hot weather and in cold weather, the underground pipes move and are at greater risk of fracturing and leaking and there are more call outs for Mr Novelli and his teams. He says young people are finding the leakage apprenticeships interesting as they combine both field work and the use of new data applications. “It’s challenging and engaging, and we all feel we are doing something good.”