Tynemarch has been awarded a 9 month UKWIR contract to research into Economic Level of Leakage Cost Curves.
ELL cost curves show the relationship between the cost of leakage detection and the level of leakage. There has been little research in this area since the Tripartite report (Leakage Target Setting for Water Companies in England and Wales, March 2002). These approaches appear to work well at higher levels of leakage, but as many UK companies now operate around their ELL the assumptions currently used may not be appropriate.
This project will look at potential methods to derive the leakage cost relations, understand their strengths and weaknesses and then make recommendations to improve the robustness of the leakage cost relationship used by water companies.
The project will focus of the relationship between leakage and find and fix costs, both now and in the future, but should also demonstrate how pressure management, mains replacement, asset deterioration, new customers and customer metering can influence the leakage cost relationship.
One issue highlighted with the current approach used in the industry is that if a water company is inefficient at leakage control, so the SELL will be higher as a result. The project will consider this problem and propose methods to address this shortcoming.
The project is due for completion in October 2010.
