Case Study: How United Utilities Optimises Asset Investment Planning
As the UK’s water sector faces increasing pressure to deliver value in a heavily regulated environment, United Utilities recognised the need to modernise and future-proof its asset investment strategy.
Tasked with managing thousands of assets while balancing customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and long-term environmental goals, the company turned to IFS Copperleaf to elevate its decision making and scenario planning capabilities.
Challenges in a Complex Regulatory Landscape
United Utilities serves over 7 million people in the North West of England. As one of the UK’s largest water companies, it manages a vast portfolio of assets across water and wastewater networks, including treatment works, pumping stations, reservoirs, and pipelines.
However, managing assets in a sustainable, cost-effective way was becoming increasingly difficult due to multiple challenges:
- Siloed decision making: Investment decisions were often made within functional or geographic silos, making it difficult to align around long-term value
- Lack of visibility and consistency: Without a centralised platform, there was limited transparency into competing investment options
- Regulatory pressure: With periodic reviews by Ofwat (the Water Services Regulation Authority), United Utilities needed to justify and prioritise investment decisions based on robust evidence and long-term value
- Increasing complexity: The rise of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals, along with aging infrastructure and climate resilience challenges, meant United Utilities had to manage a broader set of criteria in its planning process
United Utilities needed to improve asset investment planning (AIP) amid rising regulatory demands and operational complexity. David Lamb, Risk and Value Delivery Manager at United Utilities, described the need to improve how investment decisions were made and communicated: “We knew we needed to evolve, to better understand trade-offs, justify our plans, and create transparency across all stakeholders.”
Technology Selection Process
Recognising their existing methods were no longer sufficient, United Utilities began evaluating solutions that could bring clarity, consistency, and optimisation to their AIP.
Their priorities included:
- A centralised platform to consolidate investment candidates across the business
- Tools to model multiple scenarios quickly and easily
- A way to balance cost, risk, and value across different planning horizons
- Proven support for regulatory submissions, especially in the context of the Price Review 2024 (PR24) which covers the period 2025-2029
After a comprehensive technology review, United Utilities selected Copperleaf, a decision analytics software platform for organisations managing critical infrastructure. Copperleaf stood out for its ability to:
- Model trade-offs transparently: supporting defensible, data-driven investment decisions
- Create what-if scenarios on the fly: ideal for responding to regulatory or strategic shifts
- Align planning with long-term outcomes: enabling a value-based approach rather than a cost-based one
Copperleaf’s reputation in the utilities sector and its strong client base in water, gas, and electric companies also reassured United Utilities of its domain fit. The platform’s flexibility, combined with Copperleaf’s collaborative approach, made it the clear choice for centralizing planning, evaluating trade-offs, and optimising outcomes.
What stood out to us was Copperleaf’s ability to manage and prioritize investment decisions across the entire asset base in one platform. We can now optimize plans not just for today’s constraints, but for long-term outcomes.
DAVID LAMB
Risk and Value Delivery Manager
United Utilities
Implementation and Early Benefits
Once selected, Copperleaf was integrated into United Utilities’ existing asset management ecosystem. It now serves as the central repository for all investment candidates, whether originating from operational needs, compliance drivers, resilience improvements, or innovation initiatives.
Greater transparency, scenario agility, regulatory confidence, and alignment with long-term corporate goals helped yield key benefits, and lead to anticipated benefits, including:
- A Single Source of Truth: By replacing spreadsheets and disparate tools with a unified platform, United Utilities now has a consistent, shared view of all planned investments. This visibility fosters cross-functional collaboration and ensures everyone is working with the same data.
- Improved Decision Making: Copperleaf helps evaluate investment options based on risk reduction, financial return, regulatory impact, and customer value. This approach leads to better-aligned decisions and greater transparency with regulators like Ofwat.
- Scenario Planning at Speed: United Utilities can now rapidly generate alternative investment plans, stress test assumptions, and explore what-if scenarios. This agility is particularly valuable in the PR24 planning process, where evidence-based decision making is essential.
- Strategic Alignment: Using Copperleaf’s value framework, United Utilities is able to tie every investment back to corporate objectives, including environmental sustainability and service excellence. This shift helps embed long-term thinking into everyday planning.
- Regulatory Confidence: Copperleaf strengthens United Utilities’ ability to demonstrate the logic behind its plans. As a result, the company is better positioned to engage with regulators, justify funding needs, and show how investment choices deliver measurable value.
Future Plans
United Utilities’ journey with Copperleaf is still evolving. With continued collaboration on ESG priorities, supply chain integration, and innovation through Copperleaf’s client community, future plans include:
- Expanding data integration: Incorporating more real-time asset health data and condition monitoring into the investment planning process
- Enhanced ESG modelling: Embedding environmental and social impact metrics more deeply into prioritisation logic
- Collaborative planning with supply chain partners: Extending the planning capability to external stakeholders to co-create investment solutions
- Benchmarking and best practice sharing: Participating in Copperleaf’s user community to share lessons and innovate with peers
David Lamb noted United Utilities’ relationship with Copperleaf is a partnership, not just a software implementation: “We’re working together to shape how investment planning should evolve in a modern utility. It’s about future-proofing our capability.”
We chose Copperleaf because it gave us a way to manage all investment decisions in one place and connect them to risk, value, and long-term strategy. It’s not just about cost, it’s about making better decisions.
DAVID LAMB
Risk and Value Delivery Manager
United Utilities