Cost Efficiency Assessment of Four Pressure Management Methods in Water Distribution Systems
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 150, Issue 3
Abstract
The aim of this study is to identify the most feasible pressure management (PM) method financially among four available PM methods [i.e., Fixed Outlet (FO), Time Modulated (TM), Flow Modulated (FM), and Remote Node Modulated (RNM) PM] recently introduced to EPANET source code by our previous study. For that, the four PM methods are tested in 18 different water distribution systems (WDSs), which differ in size, demand pattern, and amount of leakage. PM is inevitable for WDSs; if not applied, leakage flow rate, pipe bursts, active leakage control (ALC) efforts, and indirect water and energy losses increase abundantly. This circumstance increases expenditures due to augmentations in the amount of water entering the network and allocations from the municipal budget for pipe bursts, ALC activities, and energy consumption. Equipment and construction costs must be considered when PM is planned. However, leakage flows, pipe bursts, ALC activity efforts, and indirect water and energy losses are reduced with PM application, generating economic benefits. Four PM methods bring different levels of economic benefits. The cost-benefit analysis of each method has been performed, and the method that brings the maximum benefit (maximum cost reduction) has been determined. It has been revealed that the most applicable PM method, according to the cost-benefit analysis, varies according to the unit water cost. The RNM PM method is found to be the most appropriate when the unit water cost is high. As the unit water cost decreases, FO PM or TM PM becomes the most appropriate PM method instead of RNM PM. However, when the demand pattern of the network is smooth, the most feasible method becomes FO PM, and when the demand pattern is peaked while the unit water cost is relatively low, TM PM becomes the most applicable method.
Practical Applications
It is known that four pressure management methods can be applied in water distribution systems. These are Fixed Outlet, Time Modulated, Flow Modulated, and Remote Node Modulated Pressure Management methods. Although applying pressure management generally brings economic benefits, knowing which of the four pressure management methods is the most economically advantageous to implement in a water distribution system is essential. Water distribution systems can exhibit different characteristics in terms of size, water consumption patterns, and leakage rates. The main objective of this study is to hydraulically model pressure management methods in water distribution systems with such different characteristics and to determine which of these methods is the most cost-effective.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are available in a repository (https://github.com/MehmetMelihKosucu/EPANET_3-PMX) online in accordance with funder data retention policies.
Reproducible Results
Zoran Kapelan (Delft University of Technology) reviewed and reproduced the data.
Acknowledgments
The first author is supported by the National Center for High Performance Computing of Turkey (UHeM) (Grant No. 4009422021). The second author is supported by the Scientific Research Projects Department of Istanbul Technical University (ITU-BAP) (Grant No. MDA-2022-43762) and the National Center for High Performance Computing of Turkey (UHeM) (Grant No. 1007292019). The authors would like to thank the General Directorate of Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration (İSKİ), and Ufuk Bal C.E., a staff member of the European Side Water Loss and Pressure Management Directorate of İSKİ, for sharing many of the data used in this study.
Author contributions: Mustafa Alper Özdemir, an undergraduate student at Istanbul Technical University Civil Engineering Department, compiled the source code, executed the software, and produced the output files. After all this, the authors validated the reproducibility of this study.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 150 • Issue 3 • March 2024
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 14, 2022
Accepted: Sep 29, 2023
Published online: Dec 20, 2023
Published in print: Mar 1, 2024
Discussion open until: May 20, 2024
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