Background

Operating critical infrastructure that supports public health, environmental protection and economic growth, NI Water is increasingly using digital innovation to improve operational performance, strengthen resilience and ensure responsible use of public funding.

To support these goals, NI Water developed WAVE (Wastewater Analysis Visualisation Environment), an in-house digital platform that combines operational, environmental and asset data to improve decision-making across the organisation. Built with strong governance and human oversight, WAVE enables evidence-based investment decisions, proactive network management and better environmental outcomes while maximising the value of existing infrastructure and data.

What NI Water did

NI Water created WAVE, an innovative digital analytics platform designed to identify and address Ingress and Infiltration (I&I), where unwanted groundwater, rainwater or tidal water enters the wastewater network. Excess flows can increase energy consumption, contribute to pollution incidents and drive the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.

Faced with a lack of scalable wastewater flow-monitoring data, NI Water’s Business Analytics team developed a novel approach using energy consumption data from wastewater pumping stations as a proxy for flow. By combining this with telemetry data, rainfall information, GIS mapping, environmental monitoring and digitally captured field survey results, WAVE was able to identify abnormal network behaviour and highlight areas requiring investigation.

The platform does more than visualise data. It integrates multiple datasets to identify patterns, anomalies and trends that can be understood by both technical and non-technical users, enabling faster and more informed decision-making. WAVE supports a structured process of data collection, analysis, targeted field investigations and continuous improvement, ensuring interventions are focused where they will have the greatest impact.

A key success was the identification of tidal ingress and infiltration issues in constrained wastewater catchments, including Newry. By using digital insight before committing to major infrastructure projects, NI Water was able to solve problems through targeted operational interventions rather than relying solely on expensive capital investment. The platform has since expanded from a pilot project to a province-wide analytics capability and is now embedded in operational and strategic decision-making across the organisation.

Key Impacts and Results

• Avoided or deferred £70 million in projected capital investment in Newry through evidence-led decision-making and targeted interventions
• Helped unlock capacity for 515 new homes and a new healthcare facility, supporting community development and economic growth
• Enabled the creation of 400 jobs by supporting development opportunities that would otherwise have been constrained by wastewater network limitations
• Identified previously unknown infiltration and ingress volumes across multiple catchments, including confirmation of tidal ingress, helping reduce environmental risks and improve wastewater network performance
• Reduced sensor programme costs by £200,000 through data-led evaluation and optimisation of monitoring technologies
• Deployed or planned 300 sensors integrated into NI Water telemetry systems and the WAVE platform, enabling near real-time monitoring and improved operational intelligence
• Created a scalable, user-friendly digital platform that supports proactive network management, improves environmental outcomes, reduces unnecessary energy use and carbon emissions, and provides a repeatable model for responsible technology innovation across the utility sector

What the judges said:

“NI Water created a solution that leverages internal data sets to gain deeper insights into potential weak spots across the network. These insights are then leveraged to prioritise repairs resulting in significant cost savings for NI Water and the people of Northern Ireland. These cost savings allow the expansion and optimisation of NI Water’s network.”