Yorkshire Water eradicates wastewater pump blockages with intelligent pumping system

Yorkshire Water, which provides water services to 5 million people in England, was spending too much time managing pump blockages at hundreds of pumping stations. To solve the problem, the utility tested Xylem’s intelligent Flygt Concertor N pump at a problematic site.

Yorkshire Water covers one of the largest areas in England, collecting, treating and distributing approximately 1.26 billion liters of water every day, as well as recycling and safely disposing of 1 billion liters of wastewater.

If a pump clogs at a pumping station, this can require reactive, time-consuming visits from the utility’s operations and maintenance team. This leads to significant costs in fuel, time and resources, and disruptions to local residents.

Yorkshire Water’s Dynamic Maintenance team decided they needed a more efficient solution to pump blockages and worked with Xylem to set up an initial trial. The team selected a pump station at a particularly problematic site for the trial, the Burnsall Car Park, which was clogging two to three times a week and requiring reactive visits.

Selecting an intelligent wastewater pumping system

After reviewing the Burnsall Car Park site and Yorkshire Water’s specific requirements, Xylem selected the Flygt Concertor N pump for the trial, due to its excellent clog resilience and self-cleaning features. The pump’s Adaptive N^® technology allows large solids to pass through, while specialized software detects clogs and adjusts pump speed or direction to dislodge them.

Two Concertor 6020 N pumps (2.4kW, 80mm) were installed at the Burnsall Car Park and quickly connected to Yorkshire Water’s existing wastewater network control system using the pump’s built-in connectivity. The site soon started showing impressive results.

Zero pump blockages recorded

Since the installation of the Flygt Concertor N in January 2019, there have been zero blockages recorded, meaning that reactive visits to the site for this issue were completely avoided.

Having proven the pump’s clog-resistant credentials, the Yorkshire Water Dynamic Maintenance team decided to roll out the Flygt Concertor pump across its most challenging pumping stations.

Reductions in costs, emissions and energy use

Since Flygt Concertor can be easily connected with existing networks, in less than a year Yorkshire Water has improved clog resistance with the pump at over 150 dual and triple pumping stations, with hundreds more stations planned.

As a result of the widespread installations, Yorkshire Water has reduced reactive callouts by 51% and avoided over 800 site visits. The decrease in reactive callouts has saved the utility manpower hours and reduced emissions from travel. In addition, the Flygt Concertor’s hydraulic efficiency compared to legacy pumps has contributed to a reduction in power consumption by up to 29%.

“Products like the Flygt Concertor pumping system can provide customers with significant benefits to their organization,” says Jason Robinson, Key Account Manager to Yorkshire Water at Xylem. “In this case, we’re extremely happy to have prevented pump blockages and the need for reactive visits. We’re excited for future collaboration with Yorkshire Water.”

Strengthening wastewater resilience through intelligent operations

Recurring pump blockages can undermine service reliability, increase costs and strain operational resources in wastewater networks. By applying intelligent, self-optimizing pumping technologies, Xylem helps utilities prevent blockage-related disruptions, lower energy use and shift from reactive to proactive maintenance. These gains improve system reliability and efficiency over time, supporting resilient communities while strengthening long-term operational and financial performance.