Yorkshire Water to invest £46m upgrading its systems

​The money will be spent on equipment that helps control water distribution, quality and treatment throughout the region.

The company plans to replace ​critical control systems that remotely manage Yorkshire’s water infrastructure​,​ which includes the firm’s 600 waste water treatment works, 130 reservoirs and numerous storm water pumping stations.

​​Yorkshire Water ​said t​​he investment will protect the natural environment and ensur​e​ a consistent supply of safe and clean water for its five million customers.

Nearly half of the money (£21​m) will be spent on updating 2,000 instruments that are used to measure water quality and control water flow to ensure regulatory standards are met.

A further £18​m will be spent on communication systems which relay key performance information from ​treatment works and reservoirs to the company’s head office in Bradford.

A further £7m will be spent on site automation systems that run the firm’s water treatment and distribution processes.

Stephen Herndlhofer, ​h​ead of ​i​nformation ​s​ervices at Yorkshire Water, said: “We supply 1.2 billion litres of water and treat nearly one billion litres of waste water each and every day.

​“​To ensure our assets and infrastructure continue to meet this demand, we monitor them every minute of every day, employing modern and reliable control systems. This requires an ongoing programme of upgrade and replacement to meet ever more ​​stringent environmental and water quality standards.

“By upgrading our telemetry equipment, it also reduces the risk of service failure by targeting maintenance and responding to failures before customers are affected. In turn, this helps us reduce operational costs and keep customers’ bills as low as possible.”

Telemetry refers to the use of wireless transmission to remotely monitor environmental conditions.

Since 2000, Yorkshire Water has more than tripled its annual investment in telemetry.