Costain, the infrastructure solutions company, in partnership with WSP, has secured funding from Northumbrian Water to develop a new AI-powered platform designed to improve data efficiency and accuracy, reducing delays delivery of the company’s investment projects during the asset management period. 8 (AMP8).
The funding will enable Costain and WSP to develop a proof of concept for WISDOM – Wastewater Insights for Standardization, Delivery, Operation and Maintenance – a platform that uses generative AI technology to capture, standardize and analyze large volumes of data from ‘a variety of sources, providing a comprehensive intelligent database of operational assets.
With AMP8 investment programs likely to see a doubling of investments compared to the previous cycle and a corresponding increase in asset interventions, operational and capital delivery teams must manage and evaluate larger and more complex data sets for compliance purposes.
The WISDOM AI platform would seek to optimize, combine and process huge data sets, thereby providing richer operational performance insights to capital delivery teams working on AMP8 projects. The aim is for the platform to reduce the need for wastewater treatment job managers to repeatedly provide and analyze operational data for delivery teams, thereby reducing the time spent on data entry , which can reach up to 45% of their working week. This will in turn improve overall delivery times and potentially save Northumbrian Water over £10 million over the lifecycle of AMP8.
The idea was developed at the Northumbrian Water Innovation Festival, where Costain and WSP were challenged to revolutionize the design and construction of wastewater treatment assets during the AMP8 investment round. Costain and WSP will deliver strategic infrastructure upgrades for the water company’s AMP8 investment program.
Gavin Stonard, Director of Framework at Costain, commented: “Programs to deliver investment in AMP8 – which will see a doubling of investment in wastewater treatment assets compared to AMP7 – will require the collection and analysis of huge volumes of data for design, operation and compliance. This will pose a considerable challenge and cannot be achieved with existing techniques.
“By working closely with WSP and Northumbrian Water and using cutting-edge generative AI technology, we will provide teams with the information they need quickly and efficiently. This will be a first-of-its-kind solution for the water sector, and could have significant benefits in terms of improving productivity, reducing delivery times and creating better outcomes for customers of Northumbrian Water.
“It’s extremely exciting to take this idea to the proof-of-concept stage. Being at the forefront of innovation is testament to the business culture that Northumbrian Water has fostered with its suppliers.
Michelle Johnson, Technical Director of WSP, commented: “We quickly recognized the challenge facing Northumbrian Water and that solving it required radical new thinking. The Innovation Festival allowed us to push the boundaries and consider the adoption of new technologies, such as generative AI, and apply them to a capital provision context. We look forward to taking WISDOM to the next level with the hope that if successful, we can deploy it and realize significant savings throughout AMP8.
Richard Seales, Head of Engineering at Northumbrian Water, commented: “It’s not easy to find new ways of thinking about the delivery of new and improved wastewater treatment assets, but Costain and WSP have more than risen to the challenge, and their energy and enthusiasm is evident. This was one of the standout ideas from our Innovation Festival and we are excited to see how its application could solve a big challenge facing the entire water sector.
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