Development of Smart Water Supply System for University Water Supply Through Automation and Real-Time Operations

Abstract

This paper presents the practical analytical study of the existing water supply of the quarters and hostels buildings of the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, and also design of smart intelligent water supply system through automation to achieve energy efficiency with improved system reliability. For this zone of university, the water is supplied in two stages, i.e., supply from the well which is about 700 m away from the distribution ground level tank and from this ground level tank water is distributed to various hostel and quarter buildings. The pipeline from well is 100 mm and the pump used is submersible 10HP. The daily water transmission is about 2.5 lacs liter of water, and the pump runs for more than 8 h daily round the year. The water distribution from ground level tank is through 80-mm pipeline by monoblock pumpset of 10 HP. The efficiency of pump system depends on its operation on performance curve according to its operating point. In this work, the system curve is prepared by using pipe loss nomogram, by using the Google Earth navigation for pipeline length and static head calculations. The operation of pump system along system curve is simulated by using the Python. The significant power saving can be achieved through five steps, i.e., the automation of the water supply system, reduction of flow rate (variable-frequency drive) to minimize head loss, power factor correction capacitor, (to provide the required kvar to the motor), use of the 24 × 7 programmable timers which will switch On and OFF the pump motor as per setting and avoid unnecessary running of the pump and taking benefit of TOD tariff. The operation of pump during night hours benefits both electrical utility and also the university. There exists the opportunity for the reduction of GHG emission by implementation of the above five steps. To simulate the flow reduction scope, the Python is used. The use of the VFD drive and the automation of the water supply system result in the significant savings in both energy cost and GHG emissions. Also the automation results in the reliability of the supply with the avoiding overflow of the water which also results in the water conservation. For motors used for driving the pumps, the consumption of the electrical energy is proportional to the cube of the flow rate. Therefore, relatively small reduction in the flow rate may result in significant energy savings. There is possibility for triple saving that is thousands of electricity units, lacs liter of water and tones of greenhouse gas.