Energy

As the world looks to a future in which 70% of its population will live in cities and water demand and air travel are on the rise, British companies are already reshaping infrastructure in novel and ingenious ways. With a proven track record of commercial security and a reputation for fostering long-term business partnerships, the UK has taken its exceptional skills base and tech know-how to foreign shores, for green city development projects.

Today’s British companies are producing forward-focused blueprints and results which tackle some of our era’s most formidable challenges, chief among them shortages of fresh water. Employing smart and renewable tech and big data solutions, the UK is revolutionising utilities, and bringing clean drinking water to rural communities all over the planet.

Worldwide demand for water is projected to surpass supply by 40% by 2030. While this is arguably the most formidable challenge of the 21st century, a company in Wales believes it can be tackled using one of our era’s sharpest tools.

“New technology is the answer to some of these global water problems,” says Wayne Preece, co-founder and group CEO of Hydro Industries, a water solutions tech company in Llangennech.

The SME uses patented sustainable technology to bring clean drinking water to rural communities in India, Africa and elsewhere. It also manages wastewater for infrastructure industries such as mining, construction and oil and gas – working with global blue chip companies like Shell and Tata Steel.

A Lightning Bolt Idea

Providing half a million East Africans with clean drinking water, and saving firms like Ford 85 million litres of water a year from its production process are significant achievements.

Yet, the technology behind Hydro’s off-the-shelf products and bespoke design and engineering solutions actually stems from a smart and novel way of thinking about an existing water treatment technique.

While working in the defence industry, Preece researched mobile units that could manage water contamination, and came across a process called ‘electrocoagulation.’ Instead of diluting impurities with chemicals (the worldwide standard), these contaminants are altogether removed using an electrical charge.

“It’s a much cleaner technology, in many cases more environmentally friendly than chemicals, and that’s why we liked it,” says Preece.

He and his partners developed this into a readily available and economically viable model. Hydro Industries was founded in 2010 on this patented ‘HydroCurrent technology,’ which conforms to World Health Organisation standards. It has since been positively impacting the planet, one portable product and industrial plant at a time.

“It’s a much cleaner technology, in many cases more environmentally friendly than chemicals, and that’s why we liked it.”

Going Global

The company’s five water treatment units, which are also solar power-ready, are fast-acting and mobile. “We drop a product on the ground. It can deal with an environmental problem and be picked up and moved somewhere else,” says Preece.

Hydro’s units have been installed all over the world, targeting a range of issues. In 2014, the UK firm joined forces with fuel cell engineering company Intelligent Energy, to install its off-the-shelf products next to mobile phone towers in India – where 37.7 million people are annually affected by water-borne diseases. Two years later, Hydro partnered with Chelsea Group to bring clean drinking water to Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

Preece also sees great possibilities to assist in conflict and emergency scenarios in developed and developing regions — from natural disasters in Puerto Rico, to war zone water contamination and cholera outbreaks in Yemen.

When Hydro brings its water tech to a country, it also gives a boost to the local economy, tapping into talent on the ground. “If we’re operating a drinking water system in a particular part of Africa, for example we will develop the supply chain there,” says Preece. “That’s the right thing to do. It’s economically important and sustainable.”

The Small Guy Helping the Big Guy

Despite initially setting its sights on working with governments and charities in the provision of drinking water, the dynamic company was also led by commercial demand.

As requests flooded in from industrial corporations for assistance in dealing with environmental issues like oil spills, and recovering metals from water, this became another key aspect of the business. “We go in as the small guy, helping the big guy,” says Preece.

Hydro thus offers its services on a large scale too — designing and engineering new wastewater treatment plants, and managing and supporting existing sites. In 2014, it secured a £20 million new plant contract in the United Arab Emirates.

“Environmental legislation is a big driver behind businesses like ours, wheeling out new innovation and technologies.”

An Early Adopter

Increasingly, governments are calling on businesses to take responsibility for their waste. In this vein, Hydro’s services include assistance and management of such regulatory requirements.

“Environmental legislation is a big driver behind businesses like ours, wheeling out new innovation and technologies,” notes Preece.

Water systems are also becoming more decentralised, with pipe networks moving away from national grids and instead remaining local. He believes expertise in portable water purification and management makes Hydro a natural and early adopter in this rapidly evolving space.

Preece closes, “Hydro Industries is equipped to meet the challenges related to new positive environmental legislation, as well as decentralising water, to meet higher quality and more economical demand, as we head into the future.”

“Environmental legislation is a big driver behind businesses like ours, wheeling out new innovation and technologies.”

“MAKING THE CHANGE TO LEDS SAVES ABOUT 50% OF ELECTRICITY. ADDING IN CONNECTED STREET LIGHTING SAVES UP TO A THIRD ON TOP OF THAT, AND PAYS FOR ITSELF IN THREE TO FIVE YEARS.”

The 21st century smart city is a model of efficiency. LED street lighting levels are adjusted remotely, and dimmed on a need basis, saving electricity. Drivers are digitally alerted to available parking spaces. Waste collectors are notified when rubbish bins are full, cutting unnecessary journeys by half and reducing petrol usage.

This seamless metropolis is fast becoming a reality. Telensa, the Cambridge-based world leader in connected street lighting and smart city applications, is making it happen, one lamp post at a time.

It is currently setting up one of its managed illumination systems, spanning the entirety of Edinburgh, which exemplifies how the trailblazing firm often works with global cities, counties, and utilities — its chief customers.

A state-of-the-art lighting control framework is initially established and then later, if desired, Internet of Things (IoT) elements may be added, with a networked urban centre of the future taking shape.

As the world transitions to highly energy-efficient LEDs, it has presented an opportunity for Telensa to introduce its lighting platform. The effect of combining both adaptations is revolutionary.

“Making the change to LEDs saves about 50% of electricity,” says Will Franks, CEO of Telensa. “Adding in connected street lighting saves up to a third on top of that, and pays for itself in three to five years.”

“MAKING THE CHANGE TO LEDS SAVES ABOUT 50% OF ELECTRICITY. ADDING IN CONNECTED STREET LIGHTING SAVES UP TO A THIRD ON TOP OF THAT, AND PAYS FOR ITSELF IN THREE TO FIVE YEARS.”

The Smart City Platform

The software and hardware used in Telensa’s deployments are both created in the United Kingdom, with the latter manufactured in the Sony UK Technology Centre in South Wales.

On a standard street lighting installation, the team first attaches the hardware — sensors and control modules — to lamp posts, linking wirelessly using Low Power Wide Area protocol, to base stations. These connect to its central cloud-hosted software application, which allows customers to regulate the street lights from anywhere.

Once this platform is up and running, IoT features may also be integrated, such as the aforementioned waste management system. Other applications include monitoring traffic flow, wind and floods, as well as temperatures to optimise road gritting during winter months.

A Guiding Light for the World

Telensa was founded in 2007, as a spin-off of Plextek, a consultancy which had designed a radio frequency car-tracking system for LoJack in 2004. Franks explains: “They later repurposed this technology for another application, which was smart street light control.”

More than a decade later, the Cambridge firm has installed over 1.5 million street lights to date including the biggest deployment on the planet for United States utility Georgia Power.

While North America has been a core market, the company has extended its reach to New Zealand, Hong Kong, South America and the United Arab Emirates. It is also setting up one of its central frameworks to manage gate lights at London’s Heathrow Airport.

In fact, the UK has been a global launchpad for this new game-changing sector. “The UK is definitely a world leader in smart controlled lights,” Franks says, citing Birmingham, England, which signed a £4 million contract with Telensa for the installation of one of the firm’s early street lighting networks in 2010.

Real World Applications

The award-winning company’s revenues skyrocketed to £23 million in 2017, increasing by 90% from the previous year. In the meantime, the fledgeling smart city market is expected to rise by 24.4% by 2025.

As such, Telensa’s range of IoT add-ons continues to grow. “The list is long. The smart city platforms and the portfolio of different applications is something cities are very keen on exploring,” says Franks, “We’re really at the beginning now.”

Ultimately, Telensa aims to comply with customers’ needs through the integration of its advanced technology into an efficient urban management system, but the end goal is also to improve citizens’ experiences of the landscapes they navigate every day.

And while at the forefront of IoT and cloud-hosted smart city applications, the firm is first and foremost providing solutions to address practical issues around metropolitan living.

“We would like to improve our cities for those of us living in them, whether that’s the environment, our journeys to work or our safety,” Franks concludes, “This is not high-level dreaming. This is very real world.”

“WE WOULD LIKE TO IMPROVE OUR CITIES FOR THOSE OF US LIVING IN THEM, WHETHER THAT’S THE ENVIRONMENT, OUR JOURNEYS TO WORK OR OUR SAFETY. THIS IS NOT HIGH-LEVEL DREAMING. THIS IS VERY REAL WORLD.”