The report explores the opportunities and challenges of sharing data across UK National Infrastructure Systems, with a particular focus on energy, water, and transport. Icebreaker One was proud to contribute to this crucial piece of work, undertaking a landscaping exercise to assess the current state of the art in data sharing in energy, water and transport infrastructure, particularly in regard to the support of research, with a focus on gathering evidence from the private and government sectors.

Read the full report here

You can find our landscape analysis on national infrastructure data sharing with researchers, which contributed to the above report, here

In this episode, we speak with Andrew Myers, Lead Architect, Northumbrian Water Group (NWG). Our conversation covers the water sector’s ambitious net-zero goals, flexible energy allocation, NWG’s work with Icebreaker One on the Stream open data project and the evolving public perception of water companies in the media.

Date: 19th August 2024 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Summary:

• It was noted that the current use cases were discussed:
  • OpenActive: do we bypass or utilise the Stream platform?
    • Maximising data discoverability will require showcasing and signposting to the Stream platform if users are directed straight to OpenActive.
  • Boundary data: agreeing minimum attribute standards
    • Speaking to the Environment Agency will help with aligning on standards.
• It was noted that, following the Use Case (UC) workshop, AG2 was asked to consider the technical and legal implications of the prioritised UCs.
  • Open use case
    • Increased data and insight on waterways will be beneficial to companies
    • There is concern that once the data is published, it is out of Stream’s control
    • It is a non-standard data schema
    • Using a shared ontology should be a priority
    • Ownership of the data should be clear
  • Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
    • Regulations will be consistently applied so similar requests can be flagged and responded to
    • Future dataset publication opportunities can be identified
    • Requests can be wordy so it’s difficult to search
    • National Infrastructure impacts when data can be shared
    • It’s a proactive approach – knowing what the public is asking for
• It was noted that:
  • Following the Hack Day, a governance working group has been formed to continue discussions. The operational pillars will be reviewed to ensure they’re adequately represented across governance. The group will present to the AG if they would like to propose any refinements.
  • The roles in the Trust Framework have been renamed as ‘officer’ e.g. Trust Framework Licence Officer and Trust Framework Data Officer.

The next meeting will take place on 30th September 2024.

Co-chairs:

Justin Doran, Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water

Lucy Chambers, IB1

Secretariat support:

Icebreaker One

Formal records, including attendees, are maintained by the secretariat, and are confidential to the Advisory Group members.

Date: 13th August 2024 10:00-11:30 BST

Location: online

Summary:

• It was noted that external stakeholder engagement can be encouraged by sharing work across professional networks and forming stakeholder engagement groups. Lessons learnt from citizen science projects and Stream’s journey so far will also be valuable.
• It was noted that the Use Case Workshop with Stream Water Co members explored the value and feasibility of potential use cases, producing a top three. Members were requested to discuss the prioritised shared use cases:
  • EIR requests
    • There are other organisations that this use case could relate to.
    • This data can start as shared and further steps can be taken to make it more open.
  • Energy resilience
    • There is a risk that there has not been enough engagement with stakeholders for this use case, but it could be a future opportunity.
• For the Open Use Case, Cleaning up the UK’s rivers and seas, external stakeholders (e.g. researchers, citizen scientists, innovators) have been interested in supporting the use case. This use case also aligns with the new government’s priorities and Stream’s objectives. It was discussed that:
  • River data will encompass lots of data types e.g. sources of data, lab samples, water quality samples.
  • Legal action taking place against some water companies may inhibit this data being shared.
  • Other projects may be able to use the data e.g. River Deep Mountain AI
• A vote took place asking members for endorsement on taking forward the prioritised use cases. Quorum is yet to be reached and results will be confirmed on Tuesday 20th August 2024.
• It was noted that governance discussions took place during the Hack Day. A working group will be focused on discussing and working through challenges in this area.

The next meeting will take place on 24th September 2024.

Co-chairs:

Elysia Moore, Stream Product Owner

Charlotte Hillenbrand, IB1

Secretariat support:

Icebreaker One

Formal records, including attendees, are maintained by the secretariat, and are confidential to the Steering Group members.

Aligned with our ethos of collaboration: ‘to go far, we go together’, they contribute to our mission of making data work harder to reach net zero. Now we want to highlight some of the important work they do for both people and the planet.

This week, I speak with Melissa Tallack, Managing Director of C2Life and co-lead on the Stream initiative. The conversation covers our ever-changing relationship with water as well as looking at the water sector’s journey into open data. We also discuss the important decision to value encouragement over mandates and to champion collaboration over siloed work.

Ross: Hi Mellisa, thanks so much for taking the time to speak to me. Could you start by giving me an idea of your background in the water sector and your journey so far?

Melissa: I joined the water industry off the back of its privatisation. Privatisation was in 1989 and I joined in 1993. I first joined Anglian Water, only planning to stay for a couple of years, but I discovered that there’s a lot to do in the water sector. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a variety of roles from frontline operations to scientific to asset management.

The last third of my time at Anglian Water was spent in the world of data and information. The reason I stepped into that role was because, in 2014, a regulation change came into place that required us to make different investment decisions. It meant not just looking at capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operating expenditure (OPEX) but now also total cost of expenditure (TOTEX). Data became critical here, as you need more and more reliable information to make these decisions. 

There was also a strong feeling in the sector that the data we had wasn’t up to standard, everybody felt it was either bad or simply not good enough. And yet, no one was really prepared to step forward and do anything about it. Myself and a couple of colleagues then started leading a piece of work around enterprise information management to solve that challenge. That sort of began my career in data and my interest in data as a fundamental resource in the company.

Following this, I went on to stand up an alliance of partners to work alongside Anglian Water in tackling the challenges of enterprise information management. I ended up running the data service and digital service within Anglian Water which modernised big data analytics platforms as well as modernising a lot of technology and practices within Anglian Water. 

During that time we were increasingly thinking, if we only use our own company data to answer these questions, we’re going to end up with a very siloed view of the world. We wanted to bring in external data sets and open data sets, but we also believed that by publishing our own data sets, we could get more eyes on the problem. Getting that diversity of thought was key and we were already used to being challenged from the outside in, so it kind of felt like a natural progression.

At the same time Northumbrian Water were gathering like-minded people together to talk about open data. They shared our view that this was the way forward but agreed it would be better if we all did it together. We got enough indication to suggest it was valuable and we then set our eyes on securing some funding to enable us to build out this thing which would enable open data for the sector. This marked the beginning of ‘Stream’. 

Ross: It’s fascinating to hear the journey that the water sector has been on and your place in it! Could you help me understand the Stream initiative better?

Melissa: What we’re trying to do with Stream is lower the barrier to publication as much as possible. It doesn’t matter how rough and ready it is or if you can’t connect to it programmatically, we will get there and we’ll build that capability together within the consortium of water companies. What’s important is getting data out there. I understand that people are reluctant to release data because they might be worried about it being the right format. But some data is better than none. That is definitely the philosophy we’re adopting. We’ll learn through doing, we’ll learn what people value and we’ll improve our own capability as a sector by doing this. But you have to start somewhere. It’s about building a two-way conversation with your community of users. You have to encourage, you can’t mandate.

In terms of datasets it’s very early days and so far, we’ve only released three datasets. One of those is a very foundational dataset that focuses on the boundaries between water companies. The other one that’s been published is drinking water quality. Traditionally, people would have to go to a company website and enter in a postcode to get a value for that postcode, which is useful if you want to look at one data point, but actually not very useful if you want to look at this compared to elsewhere in the region or in another water company. Now, by publishing historical drinking water quality data, you are able to do that comparison. Having said that, it’s a downloadable data set and not one that you can connect to programmatically. So I think that will probably limit the use of that data.

Ross: So it seems like there needs to be transparency not only of the data but also transparency and honesty in the ways we approach it? Where do you envision the key benefits coming from in the Stream initiative?  

Melissa: I think the environment is probably going to be a key beneficiary because that’s where a lot of the focus is. And, I hope it is, because the fundamental hypothesis behind opening water company data is to encourage transparency and trust and to drive innovation. By helping the environment, these benefits should trickle down to helping people and societies because whether we like it or not, we’re all intrinsically linked to the water environment because we rely on clean water to survive. But water companies are just one of the players in the natural environment. We can’t solve that problem alone and we need to rely on other people to work with us. A key ingredient to all of this is people’s willingness to collaborate. 

What’s promising is that we first started talking about this in April 2020. It shows you the level of commitment from the water companies to do this because we’re all still here and we’ve grown in number. In fact, we’ve now got all but two of the UK water companies as members of Stream so it’s great to see an industry actually pulled together like this. Don’t get me wrong, there is a varying spectrum across the water companies but there is certainly a strong willingness to collaborate and do this together because we know the benefits are greater if we’re working as one.

Ross: Do you think our relationship to water and the water sector has changed?

Melissa: Our relationship to water has changed, especially over the last few years. During Covid more people were spending time outside, taking up wild swimming. In fact, I think our relationship to water is always shifting. Water scarcity is certainly an increasing problem in the face of climate change and changing weather patterns, certainly for the vast majority of the UK but in the South especially. It’s here that water consumption and unaccounted for water leakage are key issues to address because we’ve got to have enough water to go around. 

If we’re able to make the operational data more transparent, people can be better informed and make different decisions about what they do with water. As an example, if you knew how you as an individual compared to people who live in the same type of property or have the same demographics and were able to see that information, would you make different decisions? And it’s not only the individuals, but what products and services can be built off the back of that data to help. 

But as I mentioned, there are many other factors and stakeholders involved. We operate in a system of systems. Take energy and water, for example, they have a strong reliance on each other. And while, historically, water has been more reliant on the energy sector, this relationship is beginning to invert. When people think of water, they think about drinking water but people rely on water for a multitude of reasons. And now, you’ve got a large number of hydrogen projects coming up where water is, of course, fundamental. 

Now, in the midst of COP28, as we await the first Global Stocktake of Paris Agreement emissions targets, our attention is fixed firmly on world leaders, in the hope that real tangible action will be taken.

Navigating a water-stressed world 

The discussion of water in reaching our net-zero goals is a timely one, not least because COP28 is taking place in one of the most water-stressed regions in the world. Indeed, high on the agenda this year is a focus on conserving and restoring freshwater ecosystems, enhancing urban water resilience, and bolstering water-resilient food systems.

This is underscored by the fact that the water sector constitutes approximately 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with an investment gap that, according to the World Resources Institute, would require $1.04 trillion annually from 2015 to 2030 to fill.

Icebreaker One’s role

There are a number of data-driven levers we could pull on to help curb emissions in the water sector. But, to really understand its impact, it’s first useful to understand the broad spectrum of data at play. This ranges from data on drinking water quality, which is open and can be accessed by anyone. To data on customer’s financial details, which is closed and can only be accessed internally. In between these, we have data on water network maps which is limited to named access only. 

There’s a clear variability in levels of accessibility when it comes to water data, and Icebreaker One has a firm grasp on this. As part of the Stream initiative, we’ve been working to establish a widely accessible open data platform along with the associated governance and data standards that underpin it. The potential benefits of this are far reaching, unlocking water data for customers, society, and the environment. 

By making UK water industry data openly available, backed by clear data licences and data standards, the Stream initiative will aid academics, innovators and campaigning organisations to analyse and better understand the relationship between water use and climate change. This can then be translated into tools and initiatives to support consumers and businesses to reduce water consumption, minimise water wasted through leaks, and identify and implement solutions for water pollution’. Ceri Stanaway, User needs Researcher, on the Stream programme

Unlocking water data

Making water industry data openly available can improve transparency in the sector, which can help spur on more data-driven decision making. Unpacking this; if all stakeholders across the water sector’s ecosystem can access the necessary data required to understand the potential challenges they face, then new and innovative solutions of ways of working can come to the fore. Collaboration will also be encouraged as policy makers, regulators and businesses gain a better understanding of their shared challenges. 

Collaboration is also a critical component when creating a standardised approach to reporting greenhouse gas emissions in the water sector. Data on greenhouse gas emissions can vary both in terms of availability and accessibility, which can give rise to unreliable emissions targets that are difficult to act upon. More than this, it can lead to organisations underestimating their carbon impact. A standardised approach will help to address these variabilities, pushing the sector to more accurately measure its emissions and achieve its net-zero targets. 

All eyes on COP28

Now, as the UN pushes for more significant emission cuts by 2030, to align with the Paris Agreement, the spotlight intensifies on COP28. We hope as the conference unfolds, more attention will be given to decarbonising the water sector. But more importantly, we hope to see a growing recognition that data is the tool to get us there. The realisation of these net-zero ambitions are not achievable without a tangible blueprint. Icebreaker One and the Stream consortium certainly understand this, with the Stream Open Data Platform (Minimum Viable Product) to launch on 18th December 2023.

The Stream partners are working towards two key milestones in the period from September 2023 to April 2024; delivering a minimum viable product (MVP) for initial open data releases in December 2023 and a functional platform in April 2024.

Stream’s Advisory Groups provide vital guidance and feedback to Stream’s workstreams as the programme moves forward in the Implementation Phase. These groups include subject matter experts from water companies and other industry stakeholders.

Here is a summary of what was discussed during the September meetings:

Market & User Needs Advisory Group

• We heard a presentation on the definition of a Use Case, with the example of EV on-street charge points from Open Energy
• The group were shown and asked to comment on the provisional research plan for Use Cases for Day 1 launch; the aim is to have 2-3 use cases ready for prioritisation by the AG in the October meeting
• Discussion on how this use-case research focuses on unlocking value for end users and will push innovation within Stream. A point was raised that we should be looking at freedom of information requests to determine the data that consumers already request. If this data was available it would open up data already requested while making it easier for water companies to answer requests.
• The MVP feasibility study was presented by the workstream lead, next steps laid out and feedback requested.
• Two water-company datasets were approved for publishing as part of the MVP, two more it was agreed to continue investigating, with more guidance for water companies on how to deliver these datasets.
• Water companies approval processes and timescales were discussed and how these compare between companies; also discussed was the work planned on data standardisation.

This group will meet again in October 2023.

Technical Requirements & Operating Model

• We heard an update on the timeline of the MVP (interim data publishing platform and initial Open Data published) and Day 1 solution (full live platform launch), and the procurement process for the Day 1 solution.
• The MVP workstream team presented their MVP feasibility study.
• The planned development of a temporary data storage solution for MVP was discussed, with enquiries on whether an off the shelf solution could be used.
• The cyber security of the MVP platform was raised, with water companies requesting that they see a formal plan to enable legal sign-off within their organisations to publish data via the platform.
• We heard a brief overview of Open Energy
• Following a summary of next steps for MVP, the MVP workstream sought guidance from water companies following the meeting on
  • Expected turnaround time from Water Companies regarding data requests for the platform/use cases
  • Anonymised data styles expected
  • Where to host MVP platform

This group will meet again in November, with an interim working group planned for October 2023.

Icebreaker One, as governance advisory partner, launched an interim Steering Group in 2023. The goal was to shape the governance structure of Stream, working to establish a lasting set of robust governance measures and engagement opportunities.

Customers: Using open data insights into water usage, utilities can optimise water management, minimise losses and ultimately pass these savings on to customers.

Society: The open data framework encourages more data-driven decision making. This results in improved services and the prevention of environmental incidents, benefitting society as a whole.

The Environment: By drawing on collective experience, sharing our research and best practices, we can reach our net-zero goals quicker. This kind of collaboration is crucial for carbon reduction in the water sector.

Key figures

• 16 water and professional services companies
• 9 workstreams
• 10 month delivery roadmap
• £3.9 million awarded by Water Breakthrough Challenge Phase 2

Icebreaker One is delighted once again to be partnering with Stream, which has been named as one of the winners of the third Water Breakthrough Challenge for the Implementation Phase of the programme, receiving £3.9m to unlock the potential of water data to benefit customers, society, and the environment. 

Stream consists of a consortium of 16 water and professional services companies with Northumbrian Water as the lead organisation. It will put in place technology and processes to remove the barriers to opening up and sharing water company data. As governance advisory partner, Icebreaker One will be running advisory groups to convene stakeholders to collaborate on this programme. Stream’s vision is to co-create a Data Sharing and Open Data Framework to unlock water data for the benefit of customers, society, and the environment. Icebreaker One is now inviting expressions of interest for the below Advisory Groups which will take place during the remainder of 2023.

Advisory Groups

The purpose of the advisory groups is to provide expert input into the programme, to address commercial, non-commercial and public needs. It will deliver cross-industry alignment on the approach, including clear use cases, a roadmap of work, definitions of risk, gaps and opportunities, and it will provide recommended approaches and resolutions. 

The Advisory Groups are as follows:

Advisory Group 1: Market and user needs

Purpose:

This group is to explore, prioritise and work through use cases that should be supported by Stream. This includes identifying defined users, their needs, mapping the data value chain and the broader ecosystem surrounding each use case.

The skills and expertise from participants will include:

• Identifying and defining user, market and societal needs
• Understanding market/ecosystem requirements and functional capabilities
• Articulating the consumer, market, societal and economic/financial benefits
• Understanding and quantifying the impact to business
• Understanding of the impact of Stream on UK policy

Advisory Group 2: Technical requirements and operating model

Purpose: 

This group is to understand technical challenges and opportunities in accessing water data, including:

• Understanding the expected types of datasets and data transactions required for the selected use case(s)
• Compliance including from a data protection, competition law and EIRs perspective
• Understanding market needs for user authentication
• Data-best-practices, security, privacy-by-design
• Licensing
• A technical feasibility assessment of existing solutions and their suitability
• review of existing governance, legislation, contracts, legacy technology and existing processes and systems
• Understanding the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) risks and impacts

The skills and expertise from participants will include:

• Identifying and defining types of datasets and data transactions required for the selected use cases
• Technical understanding of compliance, including from a data protection, competition law, State Aid and EIRs perspective
• Understanding of the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) risks and impacts
• Understanding of the market needs for user authentication
• Understanding of data-best-practices, security, privacy-by-design
• Understanding of licensing

Advisory Group members will be asked to commit up to 6 hours per month. This includes attending the 2 hour Advisory Group meetings.