Global energy and leakage optimization in water distribution systems from water treatment plants to customer taps

Delivering drinking water from water treatment plants (WTPs) to customer taps results in significant energy consumption and water loss due to leakage. The energy consumption involved in this process includes both the energy used in the water distribution networks (WDNs) and buildings. Existing research primarily focuses on optimizing energy consumption in WDNs while ignoring the energy consumption at buildings. Building height and water supply mode are crucial factors that impact energy consumption. A building hydraulic model involving various supply modes coupled with the WDN hydraulic model is developed to calculate the energy consumption and leakage from WTPs to taps. An optimization model is then proposed to minimize expenses by placing regional pump stations (RPSs) and scheduling pumps in WTPs. The application of the proposed method to a realistic WDN resulted in a 1.17% decrease in energy consumption and a 6.98% reduction in water leakage compared to traditional methods.