We know from our research and conversations with you that the amount of treated water leaking from our network is a key area you want us to tackle, and we are as keen as you are to see that amount reduce.
We are committed to reducing the amount of water lost to leaks both on our network, and in customers’ homes, by 15 per cent between 2020 and 2025 (based on our annual performance).
Leakage is measured in megalitres (1,000,000/million litres) a day (Ml/d) and we could receive an outperformance payment if we exceed our target, or be required to pay an underperformance penalty if we miss it.
We have two levels of underperformance penalties. The first level of payment is incurred if our performance falls between our target and our 2019/20, three-year average performance, of 95.1Ml/d. The second level of payment is incurred if our performance is worse than our 2019/20, three-year average performance.
How have we performed?
During 2022/23 we experienced significant environmental challenges which means we achieved a year end number of 102.0 million litres a day leakage rate against a target of annual leakage rate of 89.9 million litres a day.
This means that our three-year rolling average leakage has increased from 92.0 Ml/d to 94.5 Ml/d, which equates to a 0.6 per cent reduction on our baseline.
Due to our performance against target, we incur a penalty payment of £0.590 million for 2022/23.
This outcome was delivered against a challenging backdrop of environmental factors and repair and maintenance resources including drought, which seen an increase in network and customer leakage and unaccounted for consumption.
Later in the year, we entered a Freeze/Thaw event that significantly impacted our network leakage and customer leakage. To get back on track we have made changes to the way we deliver work and repairs. We have implemented extra supporting projects to assist us in recovery, however the significant impact of these weather events on leakage means we were unable to meet our leakage target for year (2022/23).
We recognise this performance falls short on our leakage reduction commitment in year.
We have implemented a leakage recovery plan and are delivering an enhancement programme of work to assist our target recovery, which is in addition to our substantial leakage commitment in year.
The recovery is built around accuracy of data and optimisation of systems, which is an approach that will enable us to better manage network leakage, customer leakage, commercial consumption and unaccounted for use.
We will be better placed and more accurate when targeting areas of our network and customer supplies that will benefit most from additional work.
