Power quality, harmonic reduction and energy efficiency in the UK Water sector

By Simon Dray, Strategy Director, Energy Assets

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Energy technology witha fully funded Energy Assets business model

Permanent challenges: The UK water sector as a 24/7 operational and asset intensive sector always faces constant operational and financial challenges: delivering resilient, uninterrupted water and wastewater services, while simultaneously reducing energy consumption, operational costs and carbon emissions. Water treatment works, pumping stations, sewage treatment facilities and distribution networks are among the most energy-intensive infrastructure assets in the UK.

Poor power quality: is often overlooked, but is frequently caused by harmonic distortion, phase imbalance and reactive power created by non-linear electrical loads such as variable speed drives, pumps and electronic control systems. These conditions can result in overheating of motors and transformers, increased current draw, reduced equipment life, nuisance tripping and avoidable energy losses.

Innovation focus: as UK water companies invest heavily in resilience, asset optimisation and net-zero commitments, technologies that improve electrical network performance are attracting considerable attention. One such innovation is the XECO Power Quality Platform, delivered through XCT Energy and introduced to the UK market through Energy Assets.

Smarter technologies: unlike traditional capacitor banks or passive harmonic mitigation solutions, XECO actively monitors and responds to changing electrical conditions in real time. Using advanced impedance tuning techniques, high-speed sampling rates of up to20,000 measurements per second and intelligent smart controls, the system continuously analyses network conditions and adjusts operation to optimise performance.

Optimisation: for water companies, the benefits extend beyond energy savings. Many pumping applications suffer from significant harmonic distortion due to widespread use of variable frequency drives. Harmonics increase thermal stress on cables, motors, transformers and switchgear, reducing efficiency and accelerating equipment degradation. By reducing harmonic distortion, improving voltage stability and minimising reactive power demand, the XECO platform can help extend asset life, reduce maintenance requirements and improve electrical reliability. To quote one water company “some of our electrical systems and transformers were designed 30-40years ago, they aren’t efficient, and they need a pro-active energy and electrical management plan”.

Resilience: this benefit is particularly relevant to the UK water sector. Every unplanned outage at a water treatment plant, pumping station or wastewater facility carries operational, regulatory and reputational risks. Improved power quality helps stabilise electrical infrastructure, reducing the likelihood of failures caused by excessive heat, harmonic stress or voltage instability.

Energy and carbon reduction: from an energy perspective, the opportunity is compelling. The technology has demonstrated the ability to reduce overall electrical consumption by up to 10%while improving power factor towards 99%. For facilities operating large motors and pumps around the clock, this can translate into substantial annual cost savings. A site spending £2 million per year on electricity could potentially save up to £200,000 annually, and even more depending on utilisation levels and the scale of reactive power charges on their bills.

Site by site analysis: a key differentiator is the deployment model. After some simple feasibility work, Energy Assets can fully fund the project, including site surveys, equipment supply, installation, commissioning, monitoring and ongoing optimisation. This removes the need for capital expenditure from water companies and enables rapid deployment. This is often useful for appropriate sites with the largest energy demand, but it can also be a summation of cohorts of assets, and for those sites with reactive power charges due to poor power quality.

Cost savings: Under a ten-year shared-savings contract, savings are measured and verified against anagreed baseline. The resulting reduction in energy costs is shared between Energy Assets and the customer, creating a true performance-based partnership and allowing the water company to benefit immediately from lower operating costs while Energy Assets recovers its investment from actual delivered savings.

In summary; as the UK water industry modernises its infrastructure and pursues ambitious sustainability goals, power quality optimisation represents a significant opportunity. By combining high-frequency sampling, intelligent controls, advanced harmonic reduction and innovative financing, Energy Assets, with XECO and XCT Energy provide a practical route to lower energy consumption, increased electrical resilience and improved asset performance. In an industry where every avoided outage protects customers and every kilowatt-hour saved contributes to affordability and net-zero targets -power quality has become a strategic priority, rather than a purely technical consideration.