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Virtual reality pays off for Anglian Water’s @one Alliance
29 September 2025
The use of virtual reality (VR) headsets demonstrated strong ROI for Anglian Water during AMP7. With AMP8 requiring more than double the amount of capital works, the utility’s team has invested further in VR.
Within Anglian Water’s £11bn business plan for the price control period AMP8, its @one Alliance framework is tasked with delivering much of the capital programme.
The Alliance – a partnership comprising Anglian Water with Balfour Beatty, Barhale, Binnies, Mott MacDonald Bentley, Skanska, Sweco and MWH Treatment – will oversee £2.6bn of infrastructure projects across the east of England over the next five years. That involves around 800 different projects, from underground networks to treatment works, as well as upgrades to storm tanks. It’s more than double the capital programme delivered by the @one Alliance for AMP7, so the pressure is on to deliver more with less.
The @one Alliance, which was formed almost 20 years ago on so-called Project 13 principles, is a distinctive model and one that other water companies are now looking to emulate as they take a more collaborative approach to project delivery. Employees in the alliance are ‘de-badged’, working under Anglian Water branding, but employed by partner firms, which creates an unusually integrated environment.
That structure is proving fertile ground for innovation, particularly in the use of VR.
Building the business case
Kofi Enuson, VR and immersive tools analyst, leads the Alliance’s VR programme, providing training and support to project teams. “I don’t come from an engineering background, but my role is all about digital support – platform management, onboarding and making sure we see a return on investment,” he says.
In AMP7, more than 150 Meta Quest 2 headsets were deployed alongside Resolve’s design review software. Resolve is a software-as-a-service product that allows teams building complex construction projects to review large BIM projects on the Meta Quest in a collaborative environment.
“We’ve had some project teams reporting that they have reduced the review time by 50% compared to traditional on-screen reviews.”
Kofi Enuson
This initial use of VR headsets and software proved the value of the technology. In all, nearly 160 VR models were used to support work at 47 sites, including an exact replica of the final real-world designs. These models were used for more than 270 hours by the engineering teams, resulting in around £4m of cost savings, easily covering the hardware and software costs as they proved the technology’s efficacy in the field.
The team was able to save £12,000 in one review session alone. “We’ve had some project teams reporting that they have reduced the review time by 50% compared to traditional on-screen reviews,” Enuson says.
To underscore the technology’s value, he points to the use of VR on an emergency construction scheme in Southend undertaken in AMP7 in response to the collapse of a large sewer. “This involved a team of 18 technical managers, pipeline M&E engineers and design commissioning and CAD managers, all collaborating in VR. It involved working in VR for 46 hours, more than an entire working week. It delivered a 22% time saving over their desktop review meetings.”
Enuson adds: “Teams spot issues before they’re on site, they resolve clashes earlier, and approvals happen quicker. That translates into real money saved.”
On the strength of that business case, the Alliance has invested in a further 50 Quest 3 headsets for AMP8, bringing the total to 200 and opening up augmented reality uses as well as VR.
Collaboration across borders
Collaboration in action
The Alliance integrates staff from eight partner firms into a single ‘de-badged’ workforce. “Because we’re so integrated, most people feel they work directly for Anglian Water,” Morgan explains. “But we also draw on the expertise of our partner companies. It creates a genuinely collaborative environment.”
Her team of five, focused on geospatial tools such as GIS and data integration and the VR work headed by Enuson, sits within a wider digital group of 30. “Much of our work is about interactive mapping and onsite data collection,” she says. “It supports early-stage optioneering, environmental assessment and accurate planning.”
A key drive is breaking down silos between disciplines and suppliers. Survey data, such as ecology reports, are now integrated into planning tools, flagging constraints earlier and cutting risk. Health and safety is another priority, with predictive tools helping reduce utility strikes.
For Morgan, success is measured by impact. “It’s about smarter integration,” she concludes. “If we can bring data together, plan better and deliver more safely and efficiently, that’s what matters.”
The platform is also scalable beyond the UK, with design teams in India using their own headsets to join reviews. Geospatial lead Emma Morgan says: “VR means they can interact with models in real-time even though they can’t physically visit the sites.”
This has proved invaluable on complex projects where multiple assets must fit within existing treatment sites. “When you’re installing a storm tank alongside a dosing kit, or replacing machinery next to ageing assets, VR helps everyone understand how it fits together,” Morgan says.
Even on simpler schemes, incremental gains add up. “Sometimes it’s just picking up a cramped walkway or an inaccessible valve,” Enuson adds. “Small fixes across hundreds of projects deliver significant savings.”
As well as design review, the @one Alliance also uses VR for outreach and engagement. “It’s used on our early careers events to give new joiners and prospective joiners an introduction to the water industry. Using VR, we take them round a water treatment site and show how it’s designed and operates.”
Safer by design
The Alliance’s health and safety team has embraced the technology too. Traditional hazard perception exercises for supervisors once involved paper diagrams: now, hazards are built into 3D models.
“We sat with our CAD designers, added risks like misplaced trucks or missing guardrails, and supervisors walked through in VR pointing them out,” Enuson explains. “The next step is photo-realistic environments for even greater impact.”
A culture of innovation
Underlying the push is the Alliance’s commercial model, where outperformance savings are shared between client and partners. “Innovation is expected,” Morgan says. “VR is visible, but it sits within a bigger digital strategy – from predictive analytics to paperless construction.”
Investment is always linked to efficiency. “We won’t buy technology without proof,” she stresses. “That’s why Kofi’s business case mattered: it showed VR was delivering millions.”
With £3bn of capital delivery to deliver in AMP8, VR is now embedded in the toolkit. “It isn’t a gimmick,” Enuson says. “It’s saving time and money while making projects safer and more collaborative. The fact we can point to a multi-million-pound ROI gives everyone confidence to keep investing.”
As Anglian Water expands and upgrades its network, the @one Alliance’s blend of engineering and digital innovation may provide a model for how utilities meet the challenge of scale, complexity and efficiency.
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