Case Study: United Utilities improves CCTV pipe inspection accuracy with VAPAR

United Utilities cuts CCTV pipe review delays with VAPAR

United Utilities, one of the largest water companies in the UK, faced the challenge of manually reviewing over 500km of CCTV pipe footage annually. This process was time-consuming, subjective, and created delays in assessing the condition of their vast 78,000km wastewater network. Seeking innovation, United Utilities selected vendor VAPAR to participate in its Innovation Lab initiative to improve this process.

VAPAR implemented its AI-powered cloud platform to automate the condition assessment of pipes from CCTV footage. The collaboration proved the accuracy of the AI models, aligned them to UK water standards, and significantly improved their performance over time. The solution is now part of the regular review process, saving time, standardizing defect identification, and reducing turnaround times for survey assessments. United Utilities and VAPAR are now partnering on a pathway to full business-as-usual implementation.

United Utilities