Car Key Chaos Averted by Smart Tech

Smart technology helped our engineers prevent a failure at Hailsham water pumping station in East Sussex, after a rogue set of car keys made their way into the system. 

Austin Phillips, Programme Manager Pollution Task Force at Southern Water said: “The most likely explanation is that the keys were accidentally dropped down a toilet or drain, which ultimately feeds into the pumping station.

“The AI Samotics technology which monitors the station 24/7, identified a process change: only one pump was operating. The alert went out immediately and engineers headed off a potential failure at the station.”

We have teamed up with technology firm Samotics and following a successful pilot in

2024 and sustained rollout across 2025, we’re now on track to have deployed over 3,500 units by the end of the year.

Tom Swain, Head of UK & Ireland at Samotics, said: "Detections like this are exactly why Southern Water has invested in continuous monitoring across its network. By the time a wastewater pump shows visible signs of trouble, the window to act has often already closed, and on a station running close to capacity, that's the difference between a planned repair and a pollution event.”

The Samotics smart technology monitors hard-to-reach submerged equipment 24/7 and can detect faults such as blockages and air locks.

Tom continued: "SAM4 gives Southern Water's control room continuous visibility into how every monitored asset is performing. So when something changes, the team knows quickly and can investigate before a small issue becomes a serious one. It's that early insight, applied consistently across thousands of assets, that builds genuine network resilience."

The Samotics SAM4 technology uses Electrical Signature Analysis and AI to monitor equipment remotely from the motor control cabinet, analysing current and voltage signals from pumps and motors to detect early signs of failure.