Abstract
Urban water distribution networks (WDNs) are large scale, complex systems with limited instrumentation. The nexus between water and energy reveals that energy production consumes significant quantities of of water while transporting water for end use is a highly energy intensive operation. Hence, it is important to minimize energy consumption while meeting consumer demands at required pressures On the other hand, if the available water is insufficient or inadequate to meet consumer demands at the required pressures, equitable distribution of the available resource is of primary importance. The system we consider consists of pumps delivering water to different reservoirs in a network, with each reservoir catering to time varying demand. Pumps and ON/OFF valves are used as manipulated variables to control the flow and pressure. The decision variables are the number of pumps to be turned on and the state of the valves in the network over a given horizon and the objective is to minimize energy consumption while meeting the time varying demand. Given the nonlinear nature of the pump operating curve and the hydraulics, this results in a Mixed Integer NonLinear Program (MINLP). We propose to solve by decomposing it into series of sub-problems that can be solved efficiently. Application of these ideas to distribution networks reveals potential significant savings in energy or improvement in supply. Experimental results will be shared followed by our field implementations. Sridharakumar Narasimhan
Sridharakumar Narasimhan obtained his M.Tech(integrated) and PhD in chemical engineering from IIT Maras and Clarkson University, USA in 1998 and 2006 respectively. He is currently Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering,IIT Madras, India. His background is in process systems engineering and my interests are broadly in optimal experiment and measurement system design, water distribution networks and continuous manufacturing.