UK-based geospatial technology firm, MGISS, has launched a new project, part-funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), to help minimise nationwide disruptions to gas and water supplies.
The Interruption Prevention Alert Service (IPAS) initiative will use satellite data and services to identify and locate development risks within close proximity of critical utility assets in an effort to prevent gas and water outages.
The technology can automatically detect changes in the built environment and will help mitigate risks to the UK’s critical asset infrastructure.
The challenges that utilities providers face are also likely to intensify with the government’s anticipated easing of UK planning laws as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, along with proposed additional investment in infrastructure and housebuilding.
To ensure that these relaxations do not negatively impact on critical utility assets, a robust, platform-based risk alert service is required to support gas and water providers in minimising supply disruptions.
It is expected that the IPAS project will also deliver added-value outcomes to utility suppliers, including cost savings and a reduction in carbon emissions, supporting the development of a sustainable utility network.
The €1m project, supported by €500,000 of match funding from ESA, will run for an initial two years to test its technical and commercial viability, and to develop a go-to-market plan.
MGISS is heading up the project in collaboration with data partner, Geospatial Insight; client partners, Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) and Northern Gas Networks (NGN); and funding partners, ESA and the UK Space Agency (UKSA).
Michael Darracott, Managing Director at MGISS, said: “I’m looking forward to working with our partners to promote the value of capturing, using, maintaining, and leveraging accurate and reliable geospatial data.
“We already have a significant amount of interest from operators within the water and gas sectors, and we envisage wider potential in other sectors of the UK and global economies.”
Mike Cooper, Innovation and Strategy Manager at MGISS, added: “We’ve been successfully supporting our utility partners for several years, helping them to build richly attributed and accurate asset records.
“This solution will enable utilities providers to leverage investment in those data records, combining them with change-detection data from satellite services to enable them to avoid supply disruption via a preventative insight service”.
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