Photo source: Thames Water
Thames Water’s Interim Asset Director, Piers Clark stressed at an industry meeting last week the vital importance of innovation to the water companies if they are to achieve their targets to reduce costs while meeting the outputs over this current AMP period (2010-2015). The challenge highlighted was for the water industry to develop the capacity to mitigate extreme events while delivering services in a sustainable way and providing a cost efficient service.
News that total expenditure by the UK water companies on R & D is only £20m out of annual expenditure of about £8 billion – that’s less than 0.25% does not bode well. Further virtually none of this money is spent on true research instead its all development activity with many water company R & D departments acting as gatekeepers for the introduction of new ideas.
With, for example, Ofwat appointing an innovation manager and clear board level pronouncements there is starting to be recognition of the importance of innovation. However the universal view of suppliers listening to Thames Water last week was that there is a huge gap between the desire by water companies to be innovative and the reality on the ground.
As this blog highlighted back in March a real transformation is urgently needed. The water companies need to start by really valuing innovation and being prepared to ensure suppliers are adequately rewarded to encourage the development of new approaches.
No comments:
Post a Comment