Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd is a company focussed on providing an effective mapping system to be able to establish the fluctuations of the groundwater table and why they occur.
PWS has been working in collaboration with University of Exeter staff on Deep Digital Cornwall (DDC) including Dr Laura Carter-Greaves.
Nature of intervention
Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd applied to carry out a Research & Innovation Project to develop the proof-of-concept results previously funded by a DDC Innovation Voucher; providing a real time, groundwater monitoring system for boreholes and wells, with a ‘dashboard’ to display these data, for 20 sites across Cornwall.
Value of any grant support
The project started on 12th September 2022 with a DDC Innovation Voucher of just under £4.8k to demonstrate the validity of the idea, which was followed up with a further ERDF Research and Innovation Project grant of £52k for Ground Water Monitoring using LoRaWAN iIOT Technology and the associated staffing costs.
How the DDC connection occurred
Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd first attended a Business Assist meeting with DDC in June 2022, where the groundwater monitoring idea was scoped out in collaboration with the sensor supplier, Ver Facil.
What the business assist/grant has achieved
The grant has enabled Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd to purchase and install borehole water sensors with rain gauges (LoRaWAN system), and the cameras needed to monitor and record differing water levels.
Plans for the future, incl. data on DDC Data Hub where relevant (max 3 sentences)
Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd plans to offer a new service with their remote monitoring dashboard. They have provided the Cornwall Community Flood Forum with data outputs and made results available to DDC. Louisa Inch from Premier Water Solutions 10 Ltd said, “Effective water management and education will be key to adapting to climate change here in Cornwall and everywhere. At present, no real-time monitoring of the groundwater table occurs in Cornwall. Our goal is to provide and market a service to customers such as:
- Housing developers needing to identify the location of the winter ground water table to prove the validity of using SUDS infiltration solutions.
- Environment Agency to assess the likelihood and severity of groundwater flooding and drought from individual aquifers
- Borehole operators to learn how the borehole recharges after rainfall and extraction and to provide better understanding and usage particularly in drought conditions
Planning authorities to have better access to vital information when granting permissions in known water stressed areas.
