Yorkshire Water £53m AI sewer monitoring programme predicts great results

Yorkshire Water is well on the way to rolling out over 92,000 sewer monitor alarms and monitoring devices by 2030 to reduce pollution, prevent sewer flooding and deliver a more reliable and proactive service for customers across the region.

• 45,000 new customer sewer alarms (CSAs) for customer properties
• 27,000 sewer level monitors (SLMs) to prevent sewer flooding
• 20,000 new for old replacement sewer alarms for customers

This is part of £53m investment by the utility, which is already showing promising results in reducing the risk of pollution and improved network resilience as Yorkshire Water, regional operations manager, Lee Pinder, explains:  “We’ve already installed thousands of sewer alarms across the region and plan to install over 92,000, bringing a total of 130,000 monitors by the end of 2030.

“This project is part of our overall commitment to minimise pollution, protect the environment and prevent sewer flooding, by installing sewer alarms across the network in areas that have a high risk of flooding.  Sewer alarms are monitoring devices that send a signal to let us know when the water level rises.  There are several reasons why this may happen.  It could be because of a potential blockage in the sewer pipe which could lead to wastewater flooding in customers’ homes and gardens.

“If we get an alert from one of the devices, our central control room is notified, and it allows us to respond quickly and send an operative to investigate why the water levels have risen.  Ideally, they will rectify the issues before it worsens, potentially causing damage to customers’ homes, premises and the environment.”

Deploying telemetry, AI and digital diagnostics across the network is transforming how the company manages its wastewater network.  The utility is working with several partners to deliver its modernisation and futureproofing of essential services.

The Intelligent Risk and Insight System (IRIS) sewer network telemetry deployment is a cornerstone of the long-term plan to shift from a reactive to a predictive operating model. By installing new digital monitors and advanced analytics tools across high-risk parts of the network, the company is already seeing early signs of improvement.

All of the sensor data is analysed using StormHarvester’s advanced AI. This combines the data from the sewer alarms with other influencing factors such as rainfall, river levels and groundwater levels. Machine learning algorithms then alert the control room when they detect abnormal behaviour enabling the operations teams spot issues earlier, reduce sewer flooding and storm overflows, and run the network more efficiently for customers and communities.

IRIS is a step towards creating a ‘digital twin’ of the sewer network giving the wastewater teams a clearer, more accurate picture of what’s happening underground. With improved alarms, better data quality, and easy-to-use visual tools, colleagues can make confident, proactive decisions to protect the environment and keep the service running smoothly.

The award-winning ‘predict to protect’ programme, in association with Samotics, is allowing Yorkshire Water to use predictive, data-led insights to continuously monitor thousands of critical assets using Electrical Signature Analysis (ESA) technology. 

It has prevented over 35 pollution incidents, reduced reactive site visits by 15%, and through the strategic data platform and cloud telemetry, giving teams a real-time view of asset health so that maintenance is targeted, improving environmental performance, service reliability and value for money to our customers.

Since the roll-out began in June 2025, Yorkshire Water and delivery partners, Detectronic have installed over 8,500 sewer level monitors, and 8,000 customer sewer alarms, ahead of the project scheduled to install 92,000 devices in the next five years.

Although it is still in its early stages, the technology is revealing some interesting insights as well as providing:

• Early identification of blockages
• Predictive alerts before rainfall impacts the wastewater network
• Faster, more targeted deployment of our field technicians

Improved prioritisations based on levels of risk, not response (e.g. getting to the issue before it becomes a major problem)

The AI machine learning and hyper-local rainfall modelling, the technology analyses how individual sewer monitors respond to changing flow conditions, predict potential blockages, rising main failures and issues with pumping stations. These predictions give Yorkshire Water’s wastewater teams time to intervene before an incident escalates.  These early warning systems are already reducing the risk of pollution and helping to protect customers’ homes and the environment.

Lee continues: “We know how important it is for our customers and communities that we reduce pollution and prevent sewer flooding. This investment marks a major shift in how we manage our network—moving from reacting after issues occur to preventing them before they happen. The early signs are promising, and we’ll continue to build on this momentum as we roll the technology out even further.”