Optimal control of a water distribution network by two multilevel methods

The problem of daily controlling a water distribution network, including pumping devices and storage capacities, in order to supply the consumers at the lowest cost is formulated as a constrained optimal control problem. Discrete Dynamic Programming seems the only way to overcome the particular difficulties of this problem but the dimensionality prevents one using it on the global problem. Two approaches are considered. The first one consists in tearing up the network into several subnetworks and to use an algorithm of coordination. It succeeds in case of weak coupling between subnetworks. The second one uses an original approach of aggregation and disaggregation iteratively. Presently available experiments with the latter method showed its satisfactory behaviour.