Design Tools for Sustainable Water Transmission and Distribution

Water utilities represent a significant fraction of the total energy demands of a typical community. In the case of large urban centers with limited storage capacity, the water utility may be the primary energy consumer. The use of optimized pump operation strategies in these systems may achieve significant energy savings. Although some utilities have an energy optimization program, those currently available are not integrated with real-time data from the plant. Instead, the programs are typically used on an intermittent basis to specify pump settings for future expected loads/demands. To make a truly integrated energy optimization system, real-time data on system performance, water use and demands, are necessary inputs. Previous technologies rely more on archived demand patterns and one isolated point optimization rather than system-wide optimization for real-time conditions. The key improvement of the present program is the use of real-time data gathered from throughout the system to provide ?on the fly? optimization of the water system. Instead of conducting pumping optimization only for individual pump facilities, the revised program will perform systematic optimization for the utility's entire water transmission and distribution system.

A pilot program based on these concepts is being developed for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). The pilot program illustrates the use of the data collection system and the input of this data into a real-time optimization program. The primary benefit of the project is a reduction of total energy consumption as well as a reduction in the peak energy needs of water utilities. These reductions will lead to reduced reliance on coal-fired power plants (the primary energy source in the Great Lakes region) and a concomitant reduction in the environmental/ecological impacts of such emissions. The impacts of fossil fuels are well documented and include impacts to personal health, surface waters, soils, vegetation, terrestrial and aquatic life, and aesthetics. Furthermore, the ecological damage associated with ever increasing energy consumption is not limited to those states relying on fossil fuel. Other forms of energy production have their own unique impacts on the ecosystem; these impacts are not limited to traditional energy sources but are becoming more understood for alternative energy technologies (AET) as well.