Scottish Water Horizons and Xylem Water Solutions UK Announce New Partnership

The two organisations have teamed up to provide the Scottish developer market with exclusive access to the world’s first waste water pump system with integrated intelligence, Xylem’s Flygt Concertor system.

The Flygt Concertor system offers a host of significant benefits. The system’s smart technology can sense environmental operating conditions and adapt the pumps performance to ensure they always operate at the optimum level, whilst providing intelligent feedback to station operators.

Compared to traditional pumps, the Flygt Concertor system offers up to a 70 per cent saving on energy consumption, drastically reducing carbon and running costs.

All of these benefits have a positive impact on Scottish Water vesting the asset, making the process easier for developers.

Previous installations of the Xylem technology have proven to be a huge success for Scottish Water. With the pumps working significantly more efficiently and with increased resilience compared to other technologies, Scottish Water saw both cost and carbon savings at two sites in Ayrshire. David Thompson, Capital Liaison Engineer for Scottish Water, said: “With the installation of Xylem pumps at two of our pumping stations, we saw reduced energy bills combined with savings made through fewer call outs, repairs, pump replacements and maintenance time, which amounted to Scottish Water making collective cost savings of just over £42,000 per annum. The increased efficiency of the pumps also meant that we saw energy savings of around 30 - 40 kilowatts per year.”

Scottish Water Horizons’ Operations Manager, Colin Lindsay, said “Our new partnership will offer developers peace of mind whilst contributing to a greener future for Scotland.

“In the midst of climate change, we’re committed to supporting Scotland’s journey to Net Zero Emissions. Scottish Water have pledged to Net Zero five years before the Scottish Government targets, so we want to do everything we can to drive efficiency and protect precious resources. The developer community is constantly looking for innovative systems that will help them reduce their carbon footprint whilst driving down costs. This partnership means they can choose the Flygt Concertor system, safe in the knowledge that installation will be managed and carried out by our team.

“This agreement is exactly what Scottish Water Horizons is all about – bringing fresh thinking and innovative ideas together to help our customers, our environment and our economy thrive.”

Scottish Water Horizons have years of experience in the developer market, providing a range of water and waste water services throughout Scotland. Their pumping station service starts at initial design and carries right through to vesting with Scottish Water.

Chris Stewart, Xylem’s Regional Sales and Operations Manager for Scotland, said: “Xylem are delighted that Scottish Water Horizons have embraced the opportunity to drive innovation and efficiencies into this market.  This collaboration will offer significant reductions in capital and operational costs to the housing developer, while contributing significant carbon reductions in line with the Scottish government’s carbon neutral strategy”.

“Historically pump stations can be inefficient, expensive to install and maintain, with significant operational costs. Many of the problems that developers experience with pump stations, such as clogging and breakdowns can be alleviated through the use of innovative Xylem technology that has a proven track record within the Utilities market. With this agreement, Scottish Water Horizons and Xylem Water Solutions can offer a proven alternative from a trusted provider.”

Two Scottish Water Horizons and Xylem projects in the Scottish developer market are already underway featuring the Flygt Concertor system at sites in Renfrewshire and Argyll & Bute. The projects, which were temporarily on hold due to Covid-19 restrictions and safety measures, are due for completion later this year.