Binary Linear Programming as a Decision-Making Aid for Water Intake Operators

The cost of energy consumed in the course of pumping water from its sources constitutes a considerable share of the total operating costs borne by a water company. In order to optimize the operation of a water pumping station, it is essential to devise an appropriate pumps schedule. The aim of the work was to develop a smart tool which would facilitate decision-making by the operator of a water intake, including a group of wells, supplying actual municipal waterworks. The tool creates a real-time schedule for wells and pumps integrated with them, which constitutes a basis for a final decision made by the operator, related to the degree and period of their usage. The main criterion of facilitating the decision-making pertained to achieving the minimum energy consumption during pumping water from a well to a reservoir tank, while simultaneously keeping all the wells on full stand-by. The schedule was prepared by means of binary linear programming. In this method, both the function of the goal and the limiting functions are linear, whereas the particular variables belong to the set {0,1}.