Background
The UK water sector faces increasing pressure from resource constraints, environmental obligations, ageing infrastructure, climate uncertainty, changing patterns of demand and rising customer expectations. Long-term water resource plans identify future supply requirements and hydraulic models assess the performance of individual schemes. However, neither provides a complete understanding of how an interconnected network performs under real-world operating conditions.
Building resilience requires a whole-system view that connects strategic planning, network operations, environmental obligations and investment decisions while maintaining a clear focus on customer impacts.
Results at a glance
- £100 million+ additional PR24 funding supported
- Around 50 users across operational and planning teams
- More than 125 hydraulic models integrated into a common framework
- Thousands of automated resilience simulations
- Supports WINEP, PR29 and planning to 2050
- Platform built on WRc’s WANDa technology
Challenge
For Severn Trent Water, the challenge was to bridge the gap between strategic planning and operational reality.
Water networks are dynamic systems where sources can be constrained, assets require maintenance, demand fluctuates, water quality requirements influence operational decisions and failures occur unexpectedly. Understanding resilience therefore requires more than identifying future supply deficits. It requires insight into how the whole network responds to multiple constraints simultaneously and what those impacts mean for customers.
The business needed a way to evaluate resilience across thousands of operational scenarios, understand the consequences of future environmental and regulatory changes, and make better-informed investment decisions over both short and long-term planning horizons.
Solution
WRc partnered with Severn Trent Water to create a scalable resilience and decision-support capability built on WRc’s WANDa technology. Rather than delivering a traditional modelling study designed to answer a single question, the objective was to create a sustainable business capability that could evolve alongside changing operational, regulatory and planning requirements.
The programme began with Network Analysis, providing a regional understanding of resilience without the complexity and maintenance burden associated with creating a single large-scale hydraulic model. Through standardised data structures, automated analysis and repeatable workflows, the platform enabled resilience assessments to be carried out consistently across both local and regional networks.
As requirements evolved, the capability expanded into a broader planning and decision-support platform. Around 50 users across operations, asset management, resilience, engineering and strategic planning teams now use the system to evaluate network performance, assess investment options and understand customer impacts. This enables resilience considerations to be embedded within day-to-day operational and strategic decision-making rather than being treated as a standalone assessment exercise.
The platform has continuously evolved to support major business and regulatory programmes, including:
- PR24 Peak Resilience, assessing future demand pressures and resilience risks.
- NiNA (Nottingham in Network Analysis), evaluating abstraction licence changes, groundwater reductions, water quality constraints and network operability.
- WINEP regional planning, integrating more than 125 hydraulic models into a common analytical framework.
- PR29 and 2050 planning, supporting long-term investment prioritisation, scenario evaluation and adaptive planning strategies.
By enabling thousands of automated simulations, the platform allows stakeholders to understand not only where constraints may emerge, but also how they can be mitigated through operational changes, network transfers, alternative sources or targeted investment.
Impact
The programme transformed network analysis from a project-based activity into an enterprise-wide resilience capability supporting regulatory submissions, operational planning and strategic investment decisions across the business.
Key outcomes include:
- Evidence generated through the platform contributed to securing more than £100 million of additional funding in PR24.
- A single analytical framework now connects operational planning, resilience assessment, environmental obligations and investment strategy.
- Customer resilience can be assessed under realistic operating conditions rather than theoretical planning assumptions.
- More than 125 hydraulic models can be analysed within a common platform, improving consistency, speed and efficiency.
- Decision-makers can evaluate whole-system impacts and identify solutions that deliver the greatest long-term benefit for customers and the business.
- The capability continues to support WINEP, PR29 and long-term planning to 2050, ensuring insights remain relevant beyond individual projects or regulatory cycles.
The greatest value lies in establishing a living resilience platform that continues to evolve alongside the needs of the business. By moving beyond one-off studies, Severn Trent Water can continuously assess resilience, evaluate whole-system impacts and target investment where it delivers the greatest benefit. The platform provides a long-term decision-support capability that helps the business respond to operational, environmental and regulatory change with confidence.