Improving the efficiency of delivering water in Australian river systems: modelling multiple paths

This paper focuses on a case study for supply through multiple paths on the Lachlan River System in NSW that is traditionally modelled using a rules based model (IQQM). Implementing an objective driven model decreased the volumes ordered from the multiple supply paths by 55% and reduced shortfalls by 7% of total demand relative to the rules based model. Using the NetLP solution to generate new distribution rules for orders in IQQM reduced the volumes ordered by 13% and reduced shortfalls by 5.4% of total demand relative to the original IQQM. This illustrates the benefit to river operators and planners of having NetLPs in software packages for long term planning models. Objective driven solutions can be used to generate more efficient rules where a rules based model is preferred, however there will still be tradeoffs in efficiency, modelling accuracy of complex processes, and runtime.