1. Experience of a MCERTS Remedial
Works Programme
5th November 2014

2. What am I going to say
MCERTS Self Monitoring of Flow – A brief summary
A history in terms of Anglian Water
The remedial works programme
Case Study 1 – A major problem converted to a minor one
Case Study 2 – How do you know its working?
Case Study 3 – When all else fails – A large installation and its consequences
Key Learning points – What to do and what not to do
The future innovation

3. MCERTS – A little bit of Background
MCERTS Self Monitoring of Effluent Flow
Environment Agency run scheme managed by
SIRA certification
Requirement for all wastewater and industrial
sites over 50m3/day to monitor the total daily
volume to the water environment
All meters that are used under the scheme
have to have gone through product
certification
Approximately 3,500 to 4,000 sites in England
& Wales
WASCs account for approximately 90% of the
sites
All sites have to be inspected every 5 years by
a certified MCERTS Inspector according to a
MCERTS guidelines

4. MCERTS – Anglian Water’s context
Anglian Water is the largest of all of the
WASCs in terms of MCERTS Monitoring of
flow with 693 sites qualifying works
This equates to over 750 flow meter
installations spread over a geographic area
from Canvey Island to Grimsby
This splits into
240 sites with Electromagnetic flow meters
430 sites with Ultrasonic flow meters
22 using other flow measurement
technologies
A number of these sites are low flows which
are difficult to measure

5. MCERTS – Anglian Water’s history
Anglian Water put a large number of flow meter installations in before
the MCERTS regulations were fully formed and followed best practise
at the time including burying flow meters
The MCERTS regulations changed and this included the verification of
flows every 5 years
When sites came up for recertification those sites failed the MCERTS
inspection as the flows couldn’t be manually verified
This left a legacy issue for Anglian Water to resolve
As of the start of 2012 Anglian Water had 174 of 693 sites with a flow
meter that had an expired certificate because of a failed inspection or
a site that had never been inspected.
This was the worst performance of all of the Water & Sewerage
Companies

6. The remedial works programme
To turn the Anglian Water performance around a
remedial works programme was put in place
A business case for £1.28 million was put
together covering all 174 sites.
The scope of the programme had to be
reactionary as not all of the sites had been
scoped. The eventual number of sites
remediated was 80 although all 174 sites had to
be investigated
By the time the business case was confirmed
and the project went into delivery there was a
total of 8 months to deliver all 80 sites to meet
the deadline of the end of the calendar year
when the EA assessed compliance
4 Categories
Simple Certifications
Minor Works
Verification Works
Major Works

7. Minor Works
Minor Works fell into a number of different
categories
1. Where the original installation was not of a
sufficient standard
2. Where the asset had reached the end of its
asset life
3. Where maintenance had fallen short and
damage had been caused to flow meter
installations
4. Sites where the current installation couldn’t
necessarily be certified
5. Some element of the flow was not counted
and needed to be for MCERTS standards

8. Case Study 1 - Minor Works
The site in Case Study 1 was a site that the
current layout of the treatment works prevented
it from being certified.
There was no practical way in which the site
could pass an MCERTS Inspection as it was too
dangerous
There were 3 options
1. Replace the inlet flume
2. Install a partial flow electro-magnetic flow
meter at the final effluent of the treatment
works upstream of the storm return
3. Install a partial flow electro-magnetic flow
meter on the overflow from the storm tanks
during bathing water season.
All 3 options were going to cost
over £50k and take approximately 3
weeks to complete

9. Case Study 1 - Minor Works
The solution was to hot tap the pipe that was on the
surface and thus needed no excavation and install
an insertion flow meter on a permanent basis
Technology that had recently receive product
certification
Total cost of £8k and gave Anglian Water a capital
saving of over £45k over the next cheapest option

10. Case Study II - Verification of Flow
Meters
Wasn’t originally part of the MCERTS standards
but rightly was included.
Requires an independent flow meter check of
each and every installation
PROBLEM
Flow meters were installed without taking this
into account
SOLUTION
Hot tap pipe and using the insertion technique
as a temporary verification point
1 site saving of £58k total programme saving of
£90k

11. Major Works
As part of the programme there were
occasions that there no other choice
but to instigate a major works to install
a flow meter installation
All over £50k
Was relevant to approximately 5 sites.
One case it the major works started as
minor works and turned into very
large job
Main cause were where flow meters
had been buried or a previous
installation had been done badly with
MCERTS not taken into account

12. Case Study III - Major Works
Two choices for a certified flow meter installation
Option 1 - Replace the inlet flume at a cost of approximately £45k
or
Option 2 - Replace the broken & buried flow meter at the final effluent to the works and
put a chamber around it at a cost of about £20k
The sensible solution seemed to be Option 2

13. Sensible isn’t always right
Once excavated there was no flow meter
There was an asbestos outfall pipe
And a very large hole in the ground
The solution
Remove the asbestos pipe
Replace the outfall pipe
Put a new flow meter in pipe full conditions
All in 24 hours as the site would need to be
overpumped
22 hours later and £100k later

14. Sensible isn’t always right
Once excavated there was no flow meter
There was an asbestos outfall pipe
And a very large hole in the ground
The solution
Remove the asbestos pipe
Replace the outfall pipe
Put a new flow meter in pipe full conditions
All in 24 hours as the site would need to be
overpumped
22 hours later and £100k later

15. Key learning points from the
Remedial works programme
There are some key learning points from this
remedial works programme and from the
operation of MCERTS Flow Meters in general.
These are
1. Asset Capture
2. Burying of electro-magnetic flow meters
3. Maintenance
4. Asset Standards
5. Product Certified Flow Meters
6. Installation of the right product in the right
place in the right way
7. Training

16. What’s happened since ………
Flow Innovation
Despite their being good
technologies on the market
Anglian Water will work with
flow meter manufacturers to
develop technologies.
This allows development of
technologies to get the right
meter for the right application.
Three trials have been
conducted in the last 18
months, with one more to come
and a fifth in talks at the
moment.

17. Looking forward to AMP 6
The need for investment & reliability
The reason why:
Challenging Installations still to come
Ageing assets
And a large base maintenance
programme
120 EM-meter cleans

18. Innovation in Flow
Project has been going on at Letchworth for the past
6 months in Radar flow measurement
A further request has just been received for laser flow
measurement