Pump schedules optimisation with pressure aspects in complex large-scale water distribution systems

This paper considers optimisation of pump and valve schedules in complex large-scale water distribution networks (WDN), taking into account pressure aspects such as minimum service pressure and pressure-dependent leakage. An optimisation model is automatically generated in the GAMS language from a hydraulic model in the EPANET format and from additional files describing operational constraints, electricity tariffs and pump station configurations. The paper describes in details how each hydraulic component is modelled. To reduce the size of the optimisation problem the full hydraulic model is simplified using module reduction algorithm, while retaining the nonlinear characteristics of the model. Subsequently, a nonlinear programming solver CONOPT is used to solve the optimisation model, which is in the form of Nonlinear Programming with Discontinuous Derivatives (DNLP). The results produced by CONOPT are processed further by heuristic algorithms to generate integer solution. The proposed approached was tested on a large-scale WDN model provided in the EPANET format. The considered WDN included complex structures and interactions between pump stations. Solving of several scenarios considering different horizons, time steps, operational constraints, demand levels and topological changes demonstrated ability of the approach to automatically generate and solve optimisation problems for a variety of requirements.