Better water quality and higher energy efficiency by using model predictive flow control at water supply systems

Fifty-seven per cent of all water supply systems in the Netherlands are controlled by model predictive flow control; the other 43% are controlled by conventional level-based flow control. The differences between conventional level-based flow control and model predictive control were investigated in experiments at five full-scale water supply systems in the first half of 2011. Quality parameters of the drinking water and energy consumption of the treatment and distribution processes were measured and analysed. The experiments showed that the turbidity values are 12–28% lower, and particle volume values 12–42% lower for the systems which are controlled by model predictive flow control. The overall energy consumption of water supply systems controlled by predictive flow control is 1.0–5.3% lower than conventional level-based flow controlled systems, and the overall energy costs are 1.7–7.4% lower.

[1]  Handojo Djati Utomo,et al.  Correlation between Turbidity and Total Suspended Solids in Singapore Rivers , 2011 .

[2]  J. C. van Dijk,et al.  Particles in the drinking water system: from source to discolouration , 2004 .

[3]  Michèle Prévost,et al.  Suspended particles in the drinking water of two distribution systems , 2001 .

[4]  J B Boxall,et al.  Asset deterioration and discolouration in water distribution systems. , 2011, Water research.

[5]  Lily House-Peters,et al.  Urban water demand modeling: Review of concepts, methods, and organizing principles , 2011 .

[6]  M Casas,et al.  PLIO: a generic tool for real-time operational predictive optimal control of water networks. , 2011, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[7]  J. Vreeburg,et al.  Impact of particles on sediment accumulation in a drinking water distribution system. , 2008, Water research.

[8]  Simon Bunn.  Closing the Loop in Water Supply Optimisation , 2007 .

[9]  Z. F. Rao,et al.  Optimising water supply and distribution operations , 2007 .

[10]  S. Alvisi,et al.  Optimizing the operation of the Valencia water-distribution network , 2006 .

[11]  Elad Salomons,et al.  Optimal Real-Time Operation of Urban Water Distribution Systems Using Reduced Models , 2008 .

[12]  Elad Salomons,et al.  Optimizing the operation of the Haifa-A water-distribution network , 2007 .

[13]  Dragan A. Savic,et al.  A DSS generator for multiobjective optimisation of spreadsheet-based models , 2011, Environ. Model. Softw..

[14]  Jan Timmer,et al.  Flow control by prediction of water demand , 2003 .

[15]  Marco Franchini,et al.  Conceptual design of a generic, real-time, near-optimal control system for water-distribution networks , 2007 .

[16]  Kevin E Lansey,et al.  Optimal Control of Water Supply Pumping Systems , 1994 .

[17]  Bogumil Ulanicki,et al.  Dynamic Optimization Approach for Solving an Optimal Scheduling Problem in Water Distribution Systems , 2007 .