CRU Water Services Innovation Fund
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) Water Services Innovation Fund is an exciting development enabling Irish Water to invest in innovative projects designed to deliver benefits for customers.
The Innovation Fund explained
As part of the revenue review process Irish Water's regulator, the CRU, created the Water Services Innovation Fund. The fund allows Irish Water to invest funding in innovative projects in order to explore novel technologies and operating arrangements designed to deliver benefits for customers.
Project objectives
These innovative projects must be designed to further at least one of the following objectives:
- Provision of safe, secure, and reliable water services
- Increased understanding of customer behaviours and their drivers and effective customer engagement
- Enhanced energy savings in the provision of water services
- Achievement of relevant environmental standards and the objectives of the Water Framework Directive
- Mitigation of negative climate change impacts
- Provision of water services in an economic and efficient manner
- Improved conservation of water resources
Our vision
We value water as a precious, natural resource on which the quality of life depends. Through responsible stewardship, efficient management and strong partnerships, we strive to have a world class water infrastructure that ensures secure and sustainable water services, essential for our health, our communities, the economy and the environment.
Our vision is underpinned by the Government’s Water Services Policy Statement. This sets out key principles and policy objectives across the key thematic areas of quality, conservation and future-proofing between now and 2025.
Water Services Innovation Fund projects
Ongoing - project completion date Q2 2020
This project aims to characterise trade effluent from industry sectors in Ireland that produce high risk trade effluent (the food and drinks, waste, and pharma-chemical sectors) and to identify markers that Irish Water can use to monitor its network for trade effluent from these industries.
Ongoing - project completion date 2023
This research project will examine the technical feasibility and the potential scope of opportunity to deploy STRBs to manage Alum sludge on IW assets. If successful, it is envisaged that required upgrades will be possible at a similar capital outlay to conventional sludge management solutions but with very significant opex reductions.