Minimization of Water Losses in WDS through the Optimal Location of Valves and Turbines: A Comparison between Methodologies

Abstract

In water distribution systems, one of the main problems has been the leakages generated by several factor such as pipe breakages or joint failures, among others, having an important impact in the performance indexes of water utilities such as non-revenue water index (NRW). Due to the close relationship between pressure and leakages, the pressure management approaches has demonstrated the best performance for reducing the water losses in water distribution systems. In this research, two different methodologies were proposed for comparing which approach is more efficient in the reduction of water losses: first, the optimal location of pressure reducing valves (PRV) using NSGA-II, and secondly, the optimal location and selection of pumps as turbines (PAT) using SPEA2. A well-known benchmark network was used to test the proposed methodologies, leading to the comparison between the obtained results.