WRSE calls for innovation to help develop the next regional plan

Water Resources South East (WRSE) has launched an open invitation for water companies and the supply chain to put forward suggestions that will help drive more innovation and efficiency into the next regional plan.  

As the regional group for South East England, we have been at the forefront of developing the first regional plans under the Environment Agency’s National Framework for water resources.

As we embark on WRSE 2029 we are keen to understand the opportunities that are out there, which could help us enhance our approach. 

We will be holding “innovation invitation” sessions over the summer to review submissions, which could feed into the technical scopes for the next plan. 

The 2024 regional plan completed a significant amount of work in a short period of time, and we are looking to build on the 2024 plan rather than start from scratch.

The table below shows the key activities that we hope to enhance for the next plan. 

WRSE 2024	WRSE 2029
Company demand forecasts	Central demand forecasting tool
Company options appraisal	Regional options standards for number, volume and diversity of types of solution
Best value planning	Best value planning including public value and deliverability
Regional system simulator model	Integrated system simulator models across the region
Environmental assessments	Digital environmental assessments to process plans more quickly
Regional investment model (adaptive)	Regional investment model (adaptive) testing solutions in the regional system simulator model
Visualisation tool	Visualisation tool/data management to include spatial maps and performance dashboards
Consultation management	Consultation management including a digital platform for managing responses

 

Our key focus for these activities is in three areas: 

• How do we make the current processes more efficient? 

• How do we automate current processes which are too resource intensive? 

• What new innovative processes could help WRSE produce the next plan? 

Responses to the innovation invitations should consider the key activities, together with the three focus areas above. 

If you would like to respond to the WRSE innovation invitations and present your innovative tool/concept/solution to the WRSE team, please email contact@wrse.org.uk by Friday 26th July with: your name, your organisation, the title of your innovation, the technical area of regional planning which your innovation relates to, and your availability to present to WRSE through July and August. 

We will be aiming to schedule 1-hour sessions with successful applicants over Microsoft Teams, which will comprise a short introduction from WRSE (approx. 5 minutes), a presentation from applicants (30 minutes max.) and follow up questions and discussions (approx. 25 minutes). 

The presentations will be marked by a WRSE panel and will focus on three distinct areas: driving innovation to improve processes (50%); creating project efficiencies (25%); and potential cost savings (25%). 

To find out more about WRSE visit our about us page.