Samotics burst detection in rising water mains: ESA method and lessons for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
Condition-monitoring specialist Samotics has launched a platform that uses electrical signature analysis on pump motors to give earlier warnings of bursts in rising water mains, which are typically hard to instrument directly. By monitoring current and voltage waveforms in real time, the system infers changes in hydraulic behaviour such as partial bursts, blockages or air entrainment without adding pressure or flow sensors to the pipe. For water companies, this enables remote detection on long, buried rising mains and could materially cut unaccounted-for water and repair response times.
Technical Brief
- Samotics’ platform is deployed at the motor control centre, avoiding interventions on buried or pressurised mains.
- Electrical data are captured continuously under normal operation, so no additional hydraulic test cycles are required.
- The system is retrofittable to existing pump stations, using existing current transformers and voltage taps where available.
- Analytics run on a remote platform, enabling centralised monitoring across multiple pumping stations and catchments.
- Earlier anomaly detection reduces time personnel spend on reactive site visits to remote valve chambers.
- Non-intrusive monitoring avoids breaching pipework, reducing confined-space entries and hot-work permits on live assets.
- Integration with existing SCADA / telemetry allows alarms to be routed into established operational response workflows.
Our Take
Samotics’ earlier £7m, six‑year framework with Southern Water to deploy its SAM4 ESA system across roughly 600 wastewater and clean water assets suggests this new burst‑detection technology is likely to be rolled out at scale rather than as a niche pilot.
Within our 921 Infrastructure stories, relatively few product‑led safety pieces link directly to AI or electrical signature analysis, so Samotics’ work flagged here positions it among a small group of suppliers trying to make condition monitoring a core part of UK water asset management.
Because New Civil Engineer is also running coverage on BIM, CDEs and the ‘data handover gap’, any Samotics deployment on rising mains will likely be scrutinised for how well its data streams integrate with utilities’ wider asset management platforms rather than as a stand‑alone monitoring tool.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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