A Fuzzy Linear Programming Model for Improving Productivity of Electrical Energy in Potable Water Supply Facilities (Case study: Sistan Water Supply Project)

One of the most important operational issues in urban drinking water production and distribution systems is to assign a plan for running hours of water supplying electric pumps. The cost of consuming electricity in these pumps allocates most of water and wastewater companies operational costs to itself which is dependent to their running hours. In this paper, meanwhile having a field study in Sistan rural water and wastewater company, the constraints for specifying electric pumps operational time in water supplying resources such as restrictions in fulfilling demand, supply potable water with suitable quality and uselessness of electric pumps have been identified. Due to uncertainty and fuzziness of the constraints, a linear programming model with fuzzy restrictions for determining electric pumps running hours per day is submitted with the aim to minimize electricity consumption and cost. After collecting and using required data for model, it proved that using the proposed model could reduce the costs of electrical energy and increase productivity up to 23 percent per month. The proposed mathematical fuzzy programming is able to specify electric pumps scheduling plan for water supply resources with the aim to reduce the costs of consuming energy.