Using Existing Technology to Build a Smart Water Network

For many years, hydraulic modelling has been a good predictor of system hydraulic behavior. Most water utilities build hydraulic models as part of their master planning processes. However, usually there have been two drawbacks to traditional use of hydraulic models for operations. First, utilities built heavily skeletonized models that didn’t include all pipes in the ground. Second, a true operational model was difficult to use because many water utilities traditionally lacked a straightforward way to integrate a model to current supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) information. 

With all-pipe models and SCADA connections in place, utility managers can think about a true real-time modelling system in which a server-based system with the model consistently runs without human intervention. Operators can incorporate SCADA information as boundary conditions or verification points in the output. Alarms and dashboards quickly identify discrepancies in the model predictions and the required level of service. A simplified modeling interface allows operators to quickly run what-if scenarios to examine solutions to forecasted problems. 

The benefits of real-time modeling are enormous: improved model calibration; advanced system abnormality alerts; forensic analysis; and real-time evaluation and predictive optimization of water quantity, quality, and energy use.