A smart hydroinformatic system for real time optimal operation of water distribution networks under uncertain water demand and power availability.

Abstract

More than 309 million people, mostly in developing countries around Africa, South America, and Asia, are experiencing the IWS (Li et al., 2020, Loubser et al., 2021, Erickson et al., 2017, Kumpel and Nelson, 2016). In an intermittent water supply that may occur daily, weekly, or seasonally, the drinking water is provided for less than 24 h per day to the consumers within the distribution network (Farmani et al., 2021). The uncertainty in determination of the future available electricity, required water demand, and complexity in determining and actuation of optimal operation strategies while operating pumps, valves and tanks has led to Water distribution systems operating intermittently resulting to unequitable distribution of water to all customers. If distribution systems are not optimised, there shall be a continued intermittent water supply due to routine scheduling and basing on experience, and since water demand and power availability are not put into consideration which in turn affects the flow rate and pressure of water reaching the customer is affected. Real time optimisation of pumps, valves and tanks using the use of a genetic algorithm for optimisation of the system parameters and Epanet-Matlab toolkit for simulation. in water distribution systems has been carried out individually for each component but not for the three components together. To extend the capabilities of the off-line monitoring researchers approached towards usage of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) technology is a collection of connected sensors that collect data from their environment. While resolving some of the limitations of offline monitoring systems, this technology also has some limitations, such as low spatial resolution due to private network infrastructure, compromised security, energy requirements, storage issues, and high maintenance and installation costs. (Farmanullah Jan et al 2022). The smart hydroinformatic system forecasts water demand and electricity availability, optimises valve opening and pump switching on and off and monitoring and controlling and actuating pumps, valve and tanks wirelessly. This will help minimise operational costs and maximise system efficiency hence ensuring a reliable and suitable water supply system.