Optimization of electrical energy costs in the scheduling of catchment, storage, and distribution of water

Abstract

The problem considered in this paper consists of the reduction of electrical energy costs necessary for the operation of hydraulic pumps, which are used to collect water from artesian wells or from a Water Treatment Station to fill water tanks located in many districts of a city. The water is then supplied by gravitational force. Because the cost of electrical energy varies throughout the day, a pump running schedule is necessary. The problem consists of determining when the pumps must be on and when there must be water transfer among tanks to ensure that the demand of each water tank be supplied, thereby minimizing the costs of electrical energy. This problem was modeled as an integer linear optimization problem, and a heuristic solution to the problem is proposed. Computational experiments show the efficiency of the heuristic and highlight how the approach can be used to analyze the impact of changes in the infrastructure of the water supply system.

Keywords
Water supply; Scheduling; Electric energy; Mixed integer linear programming; Heuristic methods