Real-Time Automatic Control and Management of the Network Distribution

The Novareti project is based on the study of the districtualization of the water supply network of Trento and consists in implementing an advanced controller and a real-time model, which will dialogue between themselves and with the capillary remote control system. The goal is to simulate the network’s behaviour in the future based on real historical consumption data and on all available climatic parameters (temperature, solar radiation and rain), in order to define the optimal structure of the various districts that compose the network in terms of operating pressure and flow rate. The pressure of each district will be at a lower limit, in order to provide the service to all users, but at the same time to minimize water losses and consequent damages. Also, the entire pumping system that feeds the tanks will work, taking advantage and with priority of the sources that are based on alternative energy sources, especially photovoltaic fields dedicated to them. The presence of the real time model will allow for the provision of a series of virtual measures for the advanced controller that will expand the real remote control ones, and will conduct daily water balances, with special attention to the study of the minimum night supplies, in order to report the existence of any leaks in the districts automatically, with consequent automatic activation of the loss search teams. The goal of the entire project is to decrease 25% of water loss and 20% of electrical costs.