Study and applications of on-line optimal operation in typical urban water supply system of China

The water networks in China, for historical reasons, have some general problems relating to a complex construction, namely a huge scale and long build term, and that most urban water networks did not have a standard plan when they were first designed. Besides the reasons above, the pipes in the networks have a problem in that some pipes are still in service although they have exceeded their service life. These causes have affected the service quality of water utilities. With the enlargement of water networks and the development of technology, the question of how to improve the quality of water supply service and to realize scientific schedules are the focus that most utilities are concerned with. To satisfy the requirements of optimal operation in urban water supply systems, the operating characteristics are discussed in detail, and the remote data communication technology is studied in the aspect of data acquisition and control of the water supply system. According to the study of the results, an application solution is proposed that is suitable for the operation, monitoring and control of the water supply system in China, and has been put into a practical water supply system of a typical water supply company in the north of China. The proposed solution affords excellent data interfaces for water supply system analyzing software, which is the basic condition for real-time analyzing, and realized on-line optimal operation. This plan utilizes wireless Local Area Network to establish the data link between water plants and the operations centre, and uses CDMA(Code Division Multiple Access) and GPRS(General Packet Radio Service) service for the communication between the operations centre and water supply networks. With the characteristics of low investment and running cost, the proposed plan is exactly real-time and is especially suitable for the developing countries. With about 2 years of use, the system with the proposed solutions has been proved to be stable and reliable, and satisfies the requirements of optimal operation in a water supply system.