Optimising the use of electrical energy within the waste water industry through improved utilization of process control and automation

Active system control, real time control and active system management are some of the new concepts the water utilities are investigating as a way of improving asset energy usage. The assets under most scrutiny are those with high energy burdens such as pumps and blowers. Fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks are an increasing form of control employed within software systems. The increase in availability of faster processors permits engineers to run larger, more complex models with higher precision and reliability. By reviewing the already active forms of control variants, the current work aims to integrate a block wise hydraulic model with live process data, captured from field sensors, with a view to deploying a combined optimisation technique that in turn focuses on reducing demand side energy consumption. This paper presents an initial review of these systems and an incipient proposed approach.