Improvement Methods for Supply Performance in Emergency Interconnection Plans

Abstract

When operating a water supply network (WSN), pipe failures and water service interruptions are inevitable. A large-scale water service interruption decreases the reliability of a WSN; therefore, an emergency interconnection plan (EIP) is adopted to prevent it. To establish an EIP involving emergency interconnection pipes, in most cases, only the operation plan is considered. However, it is required to evaluate possible interconnected supply areas (PISAs) from the EIP to achieve the purpose of the EIP. It is obvious that PISA is dependent on the structure of the WSN, elevation difference between the adjacent interconnected blocks, size and location of the emergency interconnection pipes, and inline pumping station. In this study, we categorized the reasons resulting in insufficient PISA from the EIP and suggested improvement methods such as increasing the pipe diameter, new pumping stations, adding emergency interconnection pipes, and adding pressure relief valves. To quantify the effect of the improvement methods on the performance of the EIP, we applied them to a real WSN and estimated the emergency supply rate for each improvement method by using Pressure Driven Analysis (PDA) was used as the hydraulic simulation tool. Consequently, each improvement method increased the PISA and the emergency supply rate on the network. Thus, the suggested method will be used in the design and operation of EIPs to improve their performance.