Proper management of the water system is crucial to ensure sustainability of a given resource, maintain
high quality water resources, and maximize a utility's ability to respond to profound operating conditions.
By taking a "systems" perspective, utilities can ensure the most effective overall management of
operations. While technology has always been important to effective and efficient operations, technology
is playing an ever-increasing role in managing today's and tomorrow's complex environment. Advanced
operational systems include technologies such as artificial intelligent networks, consumption forecasting,
integration with operational simulation models, coordination with maintenance management systems, and
automated energy management. Combining these technologies into an Optimization System empowers
utility operations in ways previously unachievable.
Through the use of an Optimization System, a water utility can achieve a multitude of benefits that include:
reduce energy costs of pumping and maximize hydro generation;
improve management of multiple water supplies - both ground and surface water;
reduce cost of water supplies while improving overall quality of supply; improve coordination of maintenance, positively influencing system operations;
reduce capital costs through coordination of operations optimization with water system planning;maintain consistent, high-quality water through real-time monitoring of water quality parameters; achieve more reliable and secure system operations via enhanced planning, continuous analysis,
and inter- and intra-utility coordination;
capture and institutionalize operational knowledge; improve response to emergencies and abnormal operations; reduce operational risks and avoid unforeseen operational expenses. This paper documents how water utilities leverage supervisory control and data aquisition (SCADA) systems and other commonly available IT
systems (e.g. office automation and web tools) to achieve substantial results using advanced optimization
and inference engines to substantially improve daily operations. Operational experience from multiple
AwwaRF EWQMS/Operations Optimization research projects and other utility optimization projects is
applied in this presentation of advanced technologies. Includes figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 640 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 10 |
| Published : | 03/01/2006 |
