DEVELOPMENT OF A PHASED WATER MASTER PLAN USING OPTIMIZATION

The Butler County Department of Environmental Services (BCDES) is a regional drinking water supplier with approximately 34,000 customer accounts in southwest Ohio. The service area has been consistently developing over the last 20 years and growth is expected to continue at a rapid pace in the future. BCDES currently purchases water from two different regional suppliers. As a wholesale water purchaser and wholesale provider, BCDES faces unique operational and planning challenges BCDES has undertaken a Water System Master Plan to identify and plan for improvements through 2025. Factors included in the master plan analysis cover a range of issues from water purchase agreements to design of future improvements for maximum redundancy. To deal with this variety of challenges, the master planning effort is using advanced hydraulic modeling and GIS applications as well as genetic algorithm optimization of distribution system improvements. While optimization is often used to design distribution system improvements for the ultimate demand conditions only, BCDES is pursuing a phased approach to optimization. The optimized distribution system improvements for each 5-year planning horizon will be coordinated to produce a phased capital improvements plan that addresses population growth over time. This presentation will outline the application of modeling and optimization tools for the case study of the BCDES system. General procedures for incorporating optimization into a phased planning approach will be discussed. The results will provide water utilities with practical options for distribution system master planning using optimization to reduce costs.