Optimal scheduling and control of a sewer pump under stochastic inflow pattern

ABSTRACT

The optimal scheduling of water pumping systems has gained a lot of attention in the research community. Nevertheless, the advancements obtained in water distribution networks were not transferred to urban drainage sewer systems, due to the reduced storage volumes of the wet wells and the high flows variability. Moreover, the use of variable speed drives, which are required to face the flow variability, makes the problem more complex. In this paper, the authors present an optimization method for the regulation of a pump in a separate foul sewer system under variable inflow. A stochastic model has been calibrated on real data for the generation of the inflow patterns and several system conditions have been simulated. A mixed-integer optimizer was used to minimize the required energy. The results obtained were compared with the classic control rule showing that the use of variable speed drives can lead to large energy savings.

KEYWORDS:

• Optimal pump scheduling
• optimal pump control
• energy efficiency
• sewer systems
• optimal management of sewer systems

Acknowledgements

This paper was part funded by the ERDF Interreg Atlantic Area Programme 2014–2020, through the REDAWN project EAPA 198/2016.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund Interreg Atlantic Area Programme 2014–2020 [REDAWN Project - EAPA 198/2016].