A Day In The Life With Predictive Control

In water treatment, a lot of our daily decisions depend on variables that are constantly changing. What the weather is like, whether a pump is out of service and, perhaps most importantly, the characteristics of the influent waters.

Adverse events usually require us to operate our systems in unusual ways and, naturally, with the risk averse instinct being to over-correct, the cost of operating facilities during these events compounds over time. 30% of utilities' operating budget is pump energy costs. A city the size of Portland, Oregon spends $20M per year on pumping alone. A reduction of just 2% saves $400K per year in energy costs. The costs associated with energy use are independent of the costs of overcompensating in chemical dosing or the effects of potential severe non-compliance penalties when water quality exceeds limits due to unplanned events of consequence.