Fuzzy Control of Pressure in a Water Supply Network Based on Neural Network System Modeling and IoT Measurements

As hydroenergetic losses are inherent to water supply systems, they are a frequent issue which water utilities deal with every day. The control of network pressure is essential to reducing these losses, providing a quality supply to consumers, saving electricity and preserving piping from excess pressure. However, to obtain these benefits, it is necessary to overcome some difficulties such as sensing the pressure of geographically distant consumer units and developing a control logic that is capable of making use of the data from these sensors and, at the same time, a good solution in terms of cost benefit. Therefore, this work has the purpose of developing a pressure monitoring and control system for water supply networks, using the ESP8266 microcontroller to collect data from pressure sensors for the integrated ScadaLTS supervisory system via the REST API. The modeling of the plant was developed using artificial neural networks together with fuzzy pressure control, both designed using the Python language. The proposed method was tested by considering a pumping station and two reference units located in the city of João Pessoa, Brazil, in which there was an excess of pressure in the supply network and low performance from the old controls, during the night period from 12:00 a.m. to 6:00 a.m. The field results estimated 2.9% energy saving in relation to the previous form of control and a guarantee that the pressure in the network was at a healthy level.