Integrated optimal cost and pressure management for water distribution systems

Open Access journalCopyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.12th International Conference on Computing and Control for the Water Industry, CCWI2013The economic crisis of recent years has refocused interest in minimizing energy consumption in WDS management. An integrated methodology is presented which seeks to fulfill three broad energy-conservation aims: conventional pump- scheduling is considered to minimize direct electricity consumption; concurrently, the optimization considers the production of energy by strategically locating in the network Pumps operating As Turbines (PATs) which can act in an analogous fashion to conventional Pressure Reducing Valves, whilst additionally recovering electricity. Results, obtained on a real WDS, demonstrate a clear economic benefit to installing PATs for energy recovery in conjunction with a pump-scheduling and pressure management regime