Decision support for the management of water and wastewater
Area of expertise: Systems for data-based decisions
A research partnership between Scottish Water, the University of Strathclyde, Selex ES and CENSIS, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems, has led to a methodology for monitoring and optimising pump performance and efficiency.
Project details
The project combined the expertise from the Centre for Intelligent Dynamic Communications (CIDCOM) and the in-depth knowledge of the water network and its assets within Scottish Water.
It looked at the operational data from operational pump stations to build a model for selecting the most efficient combination of pumps based on current conditions, for example pump performance and water inflow. Pump performance is influenced by a number of factors, including time since maintenance, water levels and the number of other pumps currently in operation.
As a result of implementing the findings of the project, for one medium-sized wastewater pump station (three pumps), savings of up to £4000 per month/month are predicted ifoptimisation is used. Rolled out across Scottish Water’s network of ~300 wastewater pump stations, plus other water treatment works has potential for substantial savings.
Who’s involved?
- Ivan Andonovic, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
- Robert Atkinson, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
- Alison Cleary, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
- Craig Michie, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
- Christos Tachtatzis, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
- Kamila Nieradzinska, Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering
About Scottish Water
Scottish Water is the water and wastewater service provider for the whole of Scotland.
Given the demographic characteristics of Scotland, it requires a large number of small water and waste water treatment works to deliver this vital public service.
To deliver this service, Scottish Water has over 47,000 kilometres of water pipes, 50,000 kilometres of sewer pipes, 1,837 waste water treatment works (including 1206 septic tanks) and 297 water treatment works, pumping stations, sludge treatment centres, reservoirs etc.
SW supplies around 2.1 billion litres of clean, safe and high quality drinking water per day and removes nearly 1 billion litres of waste water per day – which is taken away and treated to stringent levels of compliance before returning it safely to the environment.
The Scottish Water team consisted of Mr Robert White and Dr Mark Haffey.