Applications of Advanced Process Control Techniques to an Italian Water Distribution Network

In this article, an application of advanced process control techniques to an Italian water distribution network is presented. Several in-depth hydraulic studies had previously been conducted in order to perform hardware modifications through sectorization procedures. In order to further improve performance, both pressure management of the water distribution system and optimization of pump scheduling problems have been addressed. Net pressure has been minimized through two-layer model predictive control techniques, while advanced logics have been designed for the pumps' scheduling. The developed advanced process control system has been successfully installed, allowing to reduce water losses and achieve a significant reduction of operational costs in terms of electric energy and fault rates.