Innovation Award (Pilot Projects)
Celebrating best-in-class performance and innovative approaches to delivering infrastructure projects that drive efficiency, productivity and social value. This award recognises how utilities are using digital tools, new workforce approaches and collaboration to deliver projects cost-effectively and efficiently.
Innovation Award (Pilot Projects)
Celebrating best-in-class performance and innovative approaches to delivering infrastructure projects that drive efficiency, productivity and social value. This award recognises how utilities are using digital tools, new workforce approaches and collaboration to deliver projects cost-effectively and efficiently.
IBM, NESO & University of Oxford
Real Time Predictor
Real Time Predictor (RTP) is a pioneering NESO innovation project delivering its most granular demand forecast yet, providing the Control Room with ultra-short-term, minute-by-minute predictions of national electricity demand. Unlike traditional forecasting, RTP shows not only what is likely to happen, but also the level of uncertainty around that prediction. By helping identify operational risks before they materialise, RTP supports faster, better-informed decision-making in a grid shaped by renewable generation, decentralised assets and growing complexity. It has the potential to improve reliability and system resilience, reduce operational costs, and accelerate the transition to a cleaner, more digital electricity system.
Northumbrian Water and Softwire
Smart Alarm Management
Smart Alarm Management (SAM), developed by Northumbrian Water Group with Softwire, is the first machine learning system to tackle alarm overload in UK water control rooms, where controllers can face hundreds of alarms an hour. SAM groups alarms by root cause, turning many separate alerts into one clear signal. Tested against 90,000 alarms, the system cut alarm volumes by up to 75%, helping controllers prioritise and triage alarms effectively, reducing the risk of supply interruptions and pollution incidents. The proof-of-concept results secured £1.7m from Ofwat's Innovation Fund, with eight water companies now supporting the development of the pilot programme.
Northumbrian Water, Cura Terrae Water, the University of Sheffield, Minicam, Spring Innovation
Pipebot
Pipebot Patrol is an autonomous robot that roams inside live sewers, patrolling and inspecting pipelines for up to 30 days unattended. Developed by Northumbrian Water, the University of Sheffield, Cura Terrae Water, Minicam, Spring Innovation and partner utilities under Ofwat's £1.8 million Water Breakthrough Challenge, it uses acoustic sensing to identify developing blockages by type and location before they cause flooding. Unlike static sensors that only alert once sewers are backing up, or reactive CCTV surveys, Pipebot Patrol delivers continuous, mobile monitoring and near real-time alerts, crucially giving crews the lead time to intervene before sewage reaches the surface.
nxzen, UK Power Networks and Transport for London
Smarter Streetworks
Temporary barriers ensuring safety around roadworks traditionally becomes invisible to crews when they leave site. UK Power Networks, Transport for London, and nxzen converted standard reusable barriers into a connected, live public safety network that detects impacts, falls, movement, tampering, and theft. Combining Global Navigation Satellite System, Wi-Fi, and cellular positioning, battery-powered sensors deliver reliable location intelligence across busy London streets without network gateways, cabling, or external power. Live field testing achieved zero data loss, 100% location accuracy, and missing/moved barriers were replaced within an average of 30 minutes, improving public safety and providing a scalable model for wider deployment.
Octopus Energy and Kraken
Arlo: Scaling Empathy and Trust through Utility-Grade AI
Octopus Energy’s mission to make energy simple, green and affordable. We’ve redefined customer service innovation with Arlo, our AI assistant, built on Kraken’s operating system. While the industry often uses AI to deflect customers, we’ve piloted a human-in-the-loop tool, empowering our Energy Specialists. Arlo handles routine queries instantly, freeing up our teams to provide the empathy and complex support our customers really need and driving positive social and environmental impact. With 76% average ‘Customer Happiness’ scores - beating our human-only benchmarks - Arlo proves that transparent, utility-grade AI shouldn't replace people, it should help them to do their best work.
Severn Trent & Nectar 360
Saving Water, One Badge at a Time
What if the psychology behind supermarket loyalty cards and fitness apps could help innovatively tackle the UK’s water shortage? In a world first, Severn Trent partnered with Nectar to reward households for using less water. By combining smart-meter data, behavioural science and Nectar's loyalty scheme, we gave households personalised water saving targets, weekly feedback and Nectar reward-points every week they hit their target. Gamification elements, badges, promotion and relegation, and surprise prizes, keep the scheme engaging. The result: long-term water-savings of 11.1 litres per household per day, showing potential for this Ofwat Innovation-funded scheme to be rolled out nationwide.
Severn Trent
Storm Generator
Severn Trent’s Storm Generator is the UK’s first fully controllable, pilot-scale simulator for combined sewer overflow spills, designed to test stormwater treatment solutions under repeatable, real-world conditions. Built at Strongford STW, it recreates representative storm events using live wastewater, allowing technologies to be compared fairly and robustly before deployment. By replicating hydrographs (at maximum flow of 15 l/s), pollutant loads and first-flush dynamics on demand, the platform is generating investment-grade evidence to support lower-carbon, more effective solutions for reducing pollution from storm overflows. It gives Severn Trent and the wider sector a faster, stronger route to improving river
SP Energy Networks, in collaboration with SSEN, Sia, and University of Glasgow
Predict4Resilience
Predict4Resilience gives electricity networks a capability they've never had: predicting network impact before a storm strikes, transforming storm response decisions. Developed with SIA Partners, the University of Glasgow and SSEN Distribution, P4R is an operational pilot used in live decision-making by SP Energy Networks, forecasting fault locations and volumes up to five days ahead. During Storm Amy, P4R identified developing risk five days ahead and, one day before the storm, forecast 208 potential faults against roughly 200 recorded. This informed earlier deployment of teams and equipment. Following the storm, 95% of affected customers were restored within 24 hours.