Water utility uses drones to detect leaks “faster.”

A water supplier says using drones to detect leaks and flood damage from the sky has saved “potentially hundreds of thousands” of pounds a year.

Severn Trent bosses said the technology can detect leaks “earlier”, meaning workers can “quickly identify what additional resources are needed on site”.

Drones are equipped with thermal imaging that can detect drops in temperature on land that indicate an underground water leak.

Drone director Duncan Turner said: “If we can find these leaks quicker and fix them quicker, that’s better for customers.”

He added: “The offset costs of using drones instead of scaffolding to, for example, inspect one of our fermenters results in huge time and cost savings.”

Severn Trent has committed to reducing leakage by 15% by 2025 and aims to halve water losses through its network by 2045.

Drone safety officer Jonny Bevan said: “Attempting to identify a leak in a pipeline approximately 6km (3.7 miles) long may have taken some time, with our teams on site previously finding it.”

“But we can reduce that to a few hours with the drones.”

The drones – including models called Flyability Elios, Matrice 300 and Inspire 2 – were used at most sites in Severn Trent.

“Promising area”

Dr. Omid Maghazei, a lecturer at the University of Bath, researches “where, why and how” drones can be used in operational environments.

He told the BBC that there were many “promising areas” for drones in the economy, with Amazon testing the use of drones for deliveries.

He said: “This affects agriculture and the inspection of critical infrastructure – bridges, wind turbines, power plants, pipelines of many process industries.”

“Reaching areas that are not always easy – drones are cheaper and faster.”

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