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Water business changes — A driver for green clean compact technologies
e:>
Pergamon
War. Sci. Tech. Vol. 34. No. 12, pp. 13S-140, 1996. Copyright «:l 1996IAWQ. Published by Elsev ier Science Ud
Printedin Great Britain. All rightsreserved.
PU: S0273-1223(96)00862-1
0273 -1223196 $15 ·00 + 0·00
WATER BUSINESS CHANGES - A DRIVER FOR GREEN CLEAN COMPACT TECHNOLOGIES Peter Matthews Anglian Water. Ambury Road, Huntingdon. Cambridge PEl8 6NZ. UK
ABSTRACT The paper describes the development of the water industry in England and Wales from 1974 to 1995 through the perspective of Anglian Water which serves Eastern England. The experiences of that development provide ample evidence of the synergistic relationship between organisational structure and technologies used. The water industry has and is learning the same lessons as other global industries. If water management is to have its rightful place in protecting and utilising planetary resources properly. it must use the experience and lessons of other global industries. The paper indicates the first steps in this journey . Copyright © 1996 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
KEYWORDS Water industry. business change. technology development
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to chart a relationship between the nature of a water administration and the technologies employed. That chart is plotted using a journey of change undertaken by Anglian Water. one of the privatised English Water Companies. The first steps of the journey for Anglian Water were undertaken before 1974 but the milestones of the journey were 1974 with the separation of water utility services from municipalities and regionalisation together with environmental water management; 1989 privatisation of the utility functions; and 1994 transformation into a unique learning organisation.
135
136
P. MATIHEWS
SEPARATION FROM MUNICIPALITIES AND REGIONALISATION Anglian Water Authority was formed at the same time as nine other industries in England and Wales. It was formed from some 200 predecessor water, sewage and river authorities to apply efficiency, particularly for increased investment and exploit the benefits of integrated river basin management There were numerous policies and practices used by the predecessors and there was a need to bring a harmony of purpose to these. For many activities it was necessary to create entirely new ways of operating the water cycle. More progressive approaches were needed, not only to reflect more expert techniques but the new requirements for effective regional management Although many new systems, such as the regional capital programme, central computer services, regional scientific services and laboratories, were established quickly, it took a few years for new operational systems to be established effectively; examples in Anglian Water Authority were the planning of sewage effluent quality by the use of river quality objectives and the regional scheme for utilisation of sludge in agriculture. During this threshold period of 1974 - 1989, there were many opportunities and needs to change through learning. The nature of the organisation gradually became more businesslike and ratepayers changed to consumers and then to customers in the eyes of the employees. The need for customer focus developed. It was understood that these new business and technical skills required more training. Not only were external courses supported, but internal training facilities were developed within Anglian. Training courses were recognised not just as a venue to acquire information but also to discuss problems and ideas within a peer group. For this reason, employees of Anglian Water were encouraged to support professional institutions. Anglian Water was successful in reaching its goals but the threshold period of the journey was overshadowed by the economic crises which restricted public sector borrowing. The constraints on capital and operational expenditure meant that the improvements expected from the reorganisation were not sustained. Furthermore, the lack of continuing improvement caused the integrated system of water management to come under criticism at a time when there was an awakening of public interest in environmental affairs and when there was increasing demand for extra investment to meet EC legislation. Nevertheless the idea of catchment based water authorities was successful and led to many environmental improvements and to huge gains in efficiency. Systems of operation and organisation took advantage of regionalisation so the number of employees reduced and a cadres of new types of employees emerged to operate the changing services. This put Anglian Water in a strong position for the next steps. How did these changes affect technology - particularly to become cleaner, greener and more compact? The introduction of regional purchases brought demands for greater standardisation of products in order to encourage efficiency of design and maintenance. The use of centralisation of expert centres allowed expertise to flourish so this was a period of expansion. For example new analytical methods and laboratory services permitted more effective environmental monitoring. the establishment of common designs and engineering centres improved engineering efficiency and the establishment of AWARD a regional sludge utilisation service improved sludge disposal. The drive to make regional services more efficient focused attention on the use of what we now know as information technology. However, experience in Anglian Water showed that going straight for an automated works is not the best first step. The lesson is that simple. although extensive, telemetry as a prelude to the use of local master controllers is more productive.
Water business changes
131
The large size of the water authorities allowed greater innovationthan would have been possible in many of the numerous local communities. The big cities such as London may have had the creative management, but smaller communitieslike Huntingdon had not Examples of this was the decision by Anglian Water to be the first wastewater utility in the world to use the Deep Shaft process. the first UK water utility to adopt granular activated carbon adsorption as a standard process at surface water treatment works for taste and odour control. It was also amongst the first to adopt MOPE as the standard material for smaller water distribution pipes (the use of HPPE and narrowtrenching to reduce environmental impact followedon). The main driver in the technologiesat that time was to comply with a schedule of works at expected costs although these were often exceeded. The idea of green. clean and compact was not explicit - the most evident examples being the use of reed bed for sewage treatment and the development of new ways of using sewage sludge in agriculture,for example by injection.and AnglianWater was the first Authority to use this technique. SEPARATlON AND PRIVATISATION OF UTILITY FUNCTIONS
By 1987 the UK Government was under pressure to increase utility investment and. consistent with the philosophy of the day. the preferred way forward was privatisation. It was necessary. therefore. to separate environmental regulation first. This was done in 1989. The residual utility functions was established as core water service companiesin PLCs. Sharesin the PLCs were sold by the Government in late 1989. The environmental regulatoryfunctions were combined to form the National Rivers Authority; a new drinking water regulator. the DrinkingWater Inspectorate was also established. When the Companies were established in 1989. the future financial needs, over a ten year period. were agreed. These included ongoing operational management, investmentin. and management of. new assets to meet the goals for improved services. and payment to shareholders offset to a some extent by increasing efficiency. This required a agreed annual rate of increase (K) above inflation. In the case of Anglian Water this was 5.5% per year. Performance against the terms of the licence are monitored by a new financial regulator - the Office of Water Services.headed by a Director (OfWAT). The licences define the required levels of services from the Companies which add to the obligations to produce good quality effluents - as defined in dischargelicences issued by the National Rivers Authority. and drinking water which complies with the national regulations. The levels of service address matters such as customer service. sewer flooding. water supply pressureand service continuity. The licence also includes requirements on matters such as maintenance of underground assets and charges to customers. AnglianWater is justly proud of its record in keeping below the price caps in the later years of the agreed K envelope. whilst maintaining the agreed investments and substantially improving the quality compliance record. This success is almost taken for granted but what has been extremely satisfying has been the opportunity to innovate and develop policies. practices and services. The Company and its employees learned to cope with and indeed exploit the new demandsand opportunities not just as a water utility organisation but as an operatingcompanywith new sets of relationshipswith outside stakeholders. The Company had to position itself at privatisation with its understanding of the technologies needed to meet the agreed obligations. The experiences of operation and research ~ere used to identify what was needed. For example. in Anglian Water. ion exchange treatment was introduced to deal with nitrate removal from drinking water, ozonation and extended granular activated carbon were introduced to reduce haloforms, pesticides and other organic matterin drinkingwater (in conjunction with triple filters), The use of MDPE in distribution was extended to meet the obligations regarding iron and PAN in
138
P.MATIHEWS
drinking water Telemetry was unified and standardised throughout the region to aid reduction of management costs and provide greater assurances of stable operation. In sewage treatment more nitrate removal was included to cut energy costs and phosphate removal was put in at more works in order to meet environmental needs. However, the scale and speed of this exercise certainly influenced the evolution the technologies employed. The priorities were to build the works with agreed timescales, which were very demanding and reflected the demand for urgent action during the privatisation debates, within budget and to comply with the environmental obligations. It was not a time for radical process innovations, it was a time for doing what we knew already well! It did, however, lead to even greater standardisation and recognition that chemical engineering often affords greater flexibility and opportunity to meet targets than civil engineering, so modular prefabricated works built out of glass or exposey lined steel and glass re-inforced plastic tanks which had been tried before 1989 now appeared on a more frequent and wide-spread basis. This was inevitable in view of the content and speed of the programme. Between 1990 and 1995 £1.6B was spent on an agreed programme of investment The programme was adhered to clarity which brought substantial benefits in effluent and drinking water quality whilst at the same time improving customer service and environmental protection. The introduction of new processes and extension of operating experiences were also important considerations in determining the directions for evolution of the Anglian Water Group. A cautious Group business policy was adopted, restricting growth to businesses with synergy with the utility activities. So by the end of 1993, the concept of the Anglian Group triangle had been established with Anglian Water Services looking after the utility business in the Anglian region, Anglian Water International seeking overseas work on consultancy and operational contracting. Anglian Water Processes markets plant and processes throughout the world and is centred around Purac and Nordic Water with headquarters in Sweden. In mid 1995 Anglian Water decided to merge the two AWS businesses into one Anglian Water International business organised to provide integrated services in identified markets.
EMERGENCE OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW BUSINESSES Several factors have combined to stimulate the development of new technologies as a response to the evolving organisation. A number of social pressures have been growing. These arise from demands for further environmental investment at the same time that customers are becoming concerned about rising charges. Water Companies are expected to do more with less money. The Companies are also expected to provide still further improved customer service. Anglian Water had already made a good start with this and had been one of the first recipients of the Government's Customer Chartermark. After extensive public discussion and dialogue between regulators in 1993 and 1994, OFWAT completed a review of the K programmes and in Anglian Water's case K has been reduced to 1.5% for 1995 - 2000. It is clear that something more innovative than just value engineering (although this is still very important) is required to meet this new challenge. The workforce needed to be managed or rather led in more progressive and productive ways and so in anticipation of the tighter K programme the Company conducted a Strategic Systems Review through business re-engineering which culminated in a delayering and restructuring in late 1994. The Company is now organised by processes which are managed by the principles of Total Quality and Empowerment Innovation is encouraged throughout all levels, but a new Directorate has been established to promote technology innovation and exploitation as well as business change. Knowledge creation and retention are key factors to success and the Company has been
Water business changes
139
developing a persona as a learning organisation. Anglian Water is now very much into a Transformation phase in its journey of change. At the same time the global synergies of the new Group benefited from this source of technical and business energy. The strengths of Scandinavian and English technologies have been combined and supplemented with membrane technology from California to provide products and processes and services for different markets throughout the world. What, then. are the new perspectives on the technologies? The central social position occupied by Water Companies and the increased environmental awareness of the public means that the technologies employed must have a low environmental footprint In short, capital plant must be constructed as quickly as possible at as Iowa cost as possible. must fit harmoniously into the environment, satisfy the environmental and quality obligations. have a low cost to operate and have minimum by-products for disposal. A tall order indeed! In designing works. it has often been the practice to allow for substantial growth of demand but this means that investment is locked up without useful purpose. Whatever approach is used should include "just in time" investment to avoid wasteful early investment but without compromising the output - so operational modelling is important in order that the time of failure in the absence of investment can be predicted. The bigger the works. the longer ahead are these predictions required because of the length of time to plan and execute the solution. The net result of this is that it is very likely that the works of the future could well be made up of a series of modular units which can be fitted easily when needed - this will even out the difference between demand and provision of capital assets. It is clear that the capital plants of the future will have to have a "low environmental footprint" in response to the social demands being placed on the Water Companies. The Companies are now more sensitive and alert to these matters. The interlocking issues can be described by a hexagon which relates process. process plant configuration. construction material. construction method architecture and cost (see Figure I). The whole topic of plant appearance raises technology issues. Should the plant be constructed underground. should it be architecturally harmonised, or screened by landscaping or even made into a very distinctive landscape feature?
P roca •• v •••• 1 conflgunUon
->
Con .trucUon Mat.rlal
Proc ••• nature and .fflcl.ncy
<, Coat
<, Con .tructlon M.thod ------
->
Aa.th.tlc and Envlronm .ntallm pact -Archlt.ctur.
F 19 u re 1 • The Pro e e s sHe X a 9 0 n Water Companies are faced with several dilemmas. For example. customers rightly demand high levels of security of service but low charges. Water Companies and th~ir Directors faced le~al punishment if quality laws are breached. so very tight standards and a draconian and unsympathetic Regulator may
140
P.MATIHEWS
result in very high investment to avoid risk of failure and consequent prosecution. So the analysis of risk of failure versus cost becomes very important and the low cost modular plants must perform reliably with acceptable levels of risk (probably expressed in the form of percentile limits). The commercial opportunities afforded by the changing nature of the Water Companies is also helping to focus thinking regarding technology development Innovative processes are not only needed quickly to save money and the utility business. they are needed for external sales. Since 1974 the use of information technology has gradually become integrated with the ways jobs are done! This is true for many industries. This includes automation of plant. the use of main-frame. mini. networked. and personal computers. sophisticated monitoring equipment, telemetry and it now extends to changing the very essence of the way practical jobs are done. For example, field access computer supplies are being used to schedule and direct work in remote operations.
CONCLUSIONS The development of the organisational form of the water industry through regionalisation to privatisation has influenced the technologies developed and applied by the industry in England and Wales. The future philosophers and historians analysing the water industry may well debate the what if and what might have been options. The plain truth from the experience of those who have experienced change is that change has influenced the technologies used and the technology has promoted change. The verification exercise of privatisation would not have been completed as easily without information technology and even then it was an enormous jolt The water industry is learning what other industries have learned. Business change and technology change are natural. even essential. bedfellows.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank Anglian Water for permission to publish. Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of AnglianWater.
Pergamon
War. Sci. Tech. Vol. 34. No. 12, pp. 13S-140, 1996. Copyright «:l 1996IAWQ. Published by Elsev ier Science Ud
Printedin Great Britain. All rightsreserved.
PU: S0273-1223(96)00862-1
0273 -1223196 $15 ·00 + 0·00
WATER BUSINESS CHANGES - A DRIVER FOR GREEN CLEAN COMPACT TECHNOLOGIES Peter Matthews Anglian Water. Ambury Road, Huntingdon. Cambridge PEl8 6NZ. UK
ABSTRACT The paper describes the development of the water industry in England and Wales from 1974 to 1995 through the perspective of Anglian Water which serves Eastern England. The experiences of that development provide ample evidence of the synergistic relationship between organisational structure and technologies used. The water industry has and is learning the same lessons as other global industries. If water management is to have its rightful place in protecting and utilising planetary resources properly. it must use the experience and lessons of other global industries. The paper indicates the first steps in this journey . Copyright © 1996 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
KEYWORDS Water industry. business change. technology development
INTRODUCTION The purpose of this paper is to chart a relationship between the nature of a water administration and the technologies employed. That chart is plotted using a journey of change undertaken by Anglian Water. one of the privatised English Water Companies. The first steps of the journey for Anglian Water were undertaken before 1974 but the milestones of the journey were 1974 with the separation of water utility services from municipalities and regionalisation together with environmental water management; 1989 privatisation of the utility functions; and 1994 transformation into a unique learning organisation.
135
136
P. MATIHEWS
SEPARATION FROM MUNICIPALITIES AND REGIONALISATION Anglian Water Authority was formed at the same time as nine other industries in England and Wales. It was formed from some 200 predecessor water, sewage and river authorities to apply efficiency, particularly for increased investment and exploit the benefits of integrated river basin management There were numerous policies and practices used by the predecessors and there was a need to bring a harmony of purpose to these. For many activities it was necessary to create entirely new ways of operating the water cycle. More progressive approaches were needed, not only to reflect more expert techniques but the new requirements for effective regional management Although many new systems, such as the regional capital programme, central computer services, regional scientific services and laboratories, were established quickly, it took a few years for new operational systems to be established effectively; examples in Anglian Water Authority were the planning of sewage effluent quality by the use of river quality objectives and the regional scheme for utilisation of sludge in agriculture. During this threshold period of 1974 - 1989, there were many opportunities and needs to change through learning. The nature of the organisation gradually became more businesslike and ratepayers changed to consumers and then to customers in the eyes of the employees. The need for customer focus developed. It was understood that these new business and technical skills required more training. Not only were external courses supported, but internal training facilities were developed within Anglian. Training courses were recognised not just as a venue to acquire information but also to discuss problems and ideas within a peer group. For this reason, employees of Anglian Water were encouraged to support professional institutions. Anglian Water was successful in reaching its goals but the threshold period of the journey was overshadowed by the economic crises which restricted public sector borrowing. The constraints on capital and operational expenditure meant that the improvements expected from the reorganisation were not sustained. Furthermore, the lack of continuing improvement caused the integrated system of water management to come under criticism at a time when there was an awakening of public interest in environmental affairs and when there was increasing demand for extra investment to meet EC legislation. Nevertheless the idea of catchment based water authorities was successful and led to many environmental improvements and to huge gains in efficiency. Systems of operation and organisation took advantage of regionalisation so the number of employees reduced and a cadres of new types of employees emerged to operate the changing services. This put Anglian Water in a strong position for the next steps. How did these changes affect technology - particularly to become cleaner, greener and more compact? The introduction of regional purchases brought demands for greater standardisation of products in order to encourage efficiency of design and maintenance. The use of centralisation of expert centres allowed expertise to flourish so this was a period of expansion. For example new analytical methods and laboratory services permitted more effective environmental monitoring. the establishment of common designs and engineering centres improved engineering efficiency and the establishment of AWARD a regional sludge utilisation service improved sludge disposal. The drive to make regional services more efficient focused attention on the use of what we now know as information technology. However, experience in Anglian Water showed that going straight for an automated works is not the best first step. The lesson is that simple. although extensive, telemetry as a prelude to the use of local master controllers is more productive.
Water business changes
131
The large size of the water authorities allowed greater innovationthan would have been possible in many of the numerous local communities. The big cities such as London may have had the creative management, but smaller communitieslike Huntingdon had not Examples of this was the decision by Anglian Water to be the first wastewater utility in the world to use the Deep Shaft process. the first UK water utility to adopt granular activated carbon adsorption as a standard process at surface water treatment works for taste and odour control. It was also amongst the first to adopt MOPE as the standard material for smaller water distribution pipes (the use of HPPE and narrowtrenching to reduce environmental impact followedon). The main driver in the technologiesat that time was to comply with a schedule of works at expected costs although these were often exceeded. The idea of green. clean and compact was not explicit - the most evident examples being the use of reed bed for sewage treatment and the development of new ways of using sewage sludge in agriculture,for example by injection.and AnglianWater was the first Authority to use this technique. SEPARATlON AND PRIVATISATION OF UTILITY FUNCTIONS
By 1987 the UK Government was under pressure to increase utility investment and. consistent with the philosophy of the day. the preferred way forward was privatisation. It was necessary. therefore. to separate environmental regulation first. This was done in 1989. The residual utility functions was established as core water service companiesin PLCs. Sharesin the PLCs were sold by the Government in late 1989. The environmental regulatoryfunctions were combined to form the National Rivers Authority; a new drinking water regulator. the DrinkingWater Inspectorate was also established. When the Companies were established in 1989. the future financial needs, over a ten year period. were agreed. These included ongoing operational management, investmentin. and management of. new assets to meet the goals for improved services. and payment to shareholders offset to a some extent by increasing efficiency. This required a agreed annual rate of increase (K) above inflation. In the case of Anglian Water this was 5.5% per year. Performance against the terms of the licence are monitored by a new financial regulator - the Office of Water Services.headed by a Director (OfWAT). The licences define the required levels of services from the Companies which add to the obligations to produce good quality effluents - as defined in dischargelicences issued by the National Rivers Authority. and drinking water which complies with the national regulations. The levels of service address matters such as customer service. sewer flooding. water supply pressureand service continuity. The licence also includes requirements on matters such as maintenance of underground assets and charges to customers. AnglianWater is justly proud of its record in keeping below the price caps in the later years of the agreed K envelope. whilst maintaining the agreed investments and substantially improving the quality compliance record. This success is almost taken for granted but what has been extremely satisfying has been the opportunity to innovate and develop policies. practices and services. The Company and its employees learned to cope with and indeed exploit the new demandsand opportunities not just as a water utility organisation but as an operatingcompanywith new sets of relationshipswith outside stakeholders. The Company had to position itself at privatisation with its understanding of the technologies needed to meet the agreed obligations. The experiences of operation and research ~ere used to identify what was needed. For example. in Anglian Water. ion exchange treatment was introduced to deal with nitrate removal from drinking water, ozonation and extended granular activated carbon were introduced to reduce haloforms, pesticides and other organic matterin drinkingwater (in conjunction with triple filters), The use of MDPE in distribution was extended to meet the obligations regarding iron and PAN in
138
P.MATIHEWS
drinking water Telemetry was unified and standardised throughout the region to aid reduction of management costs and provide greater assurances of stable operation. In sewage treatment more nitrate removal was included to cut energy costs and phosphate removal was put in at more works in order to meet environmental needs. However, the scale and speed of this exercise certainly influenced the evolution the technologies employed. The priorities were to build the works with agreed timescales, which were very demanding and reflected the demand for urgent action during the privatisation debates, within budget and to comply with the environmental obligations. It was not a time for radical process innovations, it was a time for doing what we knew already well! It did, however, lead to even greater standardisation and recognition that chemical engineering often affords greater flexibility and opportunity to meet targets than civil engineering, so modular prefabricated works built out of glass or exposey lined steel and glass re-inforced plastic tanks which had been tried before 1989 now appeared on a more frequent and wide-spread basis. This was inevitable in view of the content and speed of the programme. Between 1990 and 1995 £1.6B was spent on an agreed programme of investment The programme was adhered to clarity which brought substantial benefits in effluent and drinking water quality whilst at the same time improving customer service and environmental protection. The introduction of new processes and extension of operating experiences were also important considerations in determining the directions for evolution of the Anglian Water Group. A cautious Group business policy was adopted, restricting growth to businesses with synergy with the utility activities. So by the end of 1993, the concept of the Anglian Group triangle had been established with Anglian Water Services looking after the utility business in the Anglian region, Anglian Water International seeking overseas work on consultancy and operational contracting. Anglian Water Processes markets plant and processes throughout the world and is centred around Purac and Nordic Water with headquarters in Sweden. In mid 1995 Anglian Water decided to merge the two AWS businesses into one Anglian Water International business organised to provide integrated services in identified markets.
EMERGENCE OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN NEW BUSINESSES Several factors have combined to stimulate the development of new technologies as a response to the evolving organisation. A number of social pressures have been growing. These arise from demands for further environmental investment at the same time that customers are becoming concerned about rising charges. Water Companies are expected to do more with less money. The Companies are also expected to provide still further improved customer service. Anglian Water had already made a good start with this and had been one of the first recipients of the Government's Customer Chartermark. After extensive public discussion and dialogue between regulators in 1993 and 1994, OFWAT completed a review of the K programmes and in Anglian Water's case K has been reduced to 1.5% for 1995 - 2000. It is clear that something more innovative than just value engineering (although this is still very important) is required to meet this new challenge. The workforce needed to be managed or rather led in more progressive and productive ways and so in anticipation of the tighter K programme the Company conducted a Strategic Systems Review through business re-engineering which culminated in a delayering and restructuring in late 1994. The Company is now organised by processes which are managed by the principles of Total Quality and Empowerment Innovation is encouraged throughout all levels, but a new Directorate has been established to promote technology innovation and exploitation as well as business change. Knowledge creation and retention are key factors to success and the Company has been
Water business changes
139
developing a persona as a learning organisation. Anglian Water is now very much into a Transformation phase in its journey of change. At the same time the global synergies of the new Group benefited from this source of technical and business energy. The strengths of Scandinavian and English technologies have been combined and supplemented with membrane technology from California to provide products and processes and services for different markets throughout the world. What, then. are the new perspectives on the technologies? The central social position occupied by Water Companies and the increased environmental awareness of the public means that the technologies employed must have a low environmental footprint In short, capital plant must be constructed as quickly as possible at as Iowa cost as possible. must fit harmoniously into the environment, satisfy the environmental and quality obligations. have a low cost to operate and have minimum by-products for disposal. A tall order indeed! In designing works. it has often been the practice to allow for substantial growth of demand but this means that investment is locked up without useful purpose. Whatever approach is used should include "just in time" investment to avoid wasteful early investment but without compromising the output - so operational modelling is important in order that the time of failure in the absence of investment can be predicted. The bigger the works. the longer ahead are these predictions required because of the length of time to plan and execute the solution. The net result of this is that it is very likely that the works of the future could well be made up of a series of modular units which can be fitted easily when needed - this will even out the difference between demand and provision of capital assets. It is clear that the capital plants of the future will have to have a "low environmental footprint" in response to the social demands being placed on the Water Companies. The Companies are now more sensitive and alert to these matters. The interlocking issues can be described by a hexagon which relates process. process plant configuration. construction material. construction method architecture and cost (see Figure I). The whole topic of plant appearance raises technology issues. Should the plant be constructed underground. should it be architecturally harmonised, or screened by landscaping or even made into a very distinctive landscape feature?
P roca •• v •••• 1 conflgunUon
->
Con .trucUon Mat.rlal
Proc ••• nature and .fflcl.ncy
<, Coat
<, Con .tructlon M.thod ------
->
Aa.th.tlc and Envlronm .ntallm pact -Archlt.ctur.
F 19 u re 1 • The Pro e e s sHe X a 9 0 n Water Companies are faced with several dilemmas. For example. customers rightly demand high levels of security of service but low charges. Water Companies and th~ir Directors faced le~al punishment if quality laws are breached. so very tight standards and a draconian and unsympathetic Regulator may
140
P.MATIHEWS
result in very high investment to avoid risk of failure and consequent prosecution. So the analysis of risk of failure versus cost becomes very important and the low cost modular plants must perform reliably with acceptable levels of risk (probably expressed in the form of percentile limits). The commercial opportunities afforded by the changing nature of the Water Companies is also helping to focus thinking regarding technology development Innovative processes are not only needed quickly to save money and the utility business. they are needed for external sales. Since 1974 the use of information technology has gradually become integrated with the ways jobs are done! This is true for many industries. This includes automation of plant. the use of main-frame. mini. networked. and personal computers. sophisticated monitoring equipment, telemetry and it now extends to changing the very essence of the way practical jobs are done. For example, field access computer supplies are being used to schedule and direct work in remote operations.
CONCLUSIONS The development of the organisational form of the water industry through regionalisation to privatisation has influenced the technologies developed and applied by the industry in England and Wales. The future philosophers and historians analysing the water industry may well debate the what if and what might have been options. The plain truth from the experience of those who have experienced change is that change has influenced the technologies used and the technology has promoted change. The verification exercise of privatisation would not have been completed as easily without information technology and even then it was an enormous jolt The water industry is learning what other industries have learned. Business change and technology change are natural. even essential. bedfellows.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to thank Anglian Water for permission to publish. Any views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of AnglianWater.