A heuristic approach to the water networks pumping scheduling issue

In order to improve the efficiency of drinking water networks, we develop a model for branched configurations of pipes, which optimizes pumping scheduling by taking into account electricity tariffs, pumps characteristics and network constraints on a daily basis. We estimate a 10% discount in the energy bill, an amount which depends strongly on the characteristics of the network under study and the quality of the current strategy. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.