Production Planning to Optimise Drinking Water Production

​A mass balance strategy involves accounting for all water entering, used within, and leaving a water system—ensuring that inputs equal outputs plus or minus any losses (for example from consumption and evaporation. It's essential for quantifying water resources, understanding usage patterns, and planning supply.

Typically a mass balance equation is completed plant by plant and is often managed as a manual process using spreadsheets.

Aquadvanced® Production Planning facilitates a systems thinking approach, using an understanding of the interconnectedness of elements within the water system to create a more efficient way to optimise supply across the network.

Monitoring production volumes is critical for reliable service delivery, regulatory adherence, cost efficiency, and sustainable water management. More specifically, they need to monitor production volumes from water treatment plants for these important reasons:

 

• Demand Management. Through monitoring utilities can match supply with demand, helping to ensure their water production meets consumer demand without overproducing or underproducing. Peak usage tracking helps utilities understand the daily or seasonal usage patterns sot hey can to plan accordingly.
  
  
• Regulatory Compliance. Water companies are often required to report productions volumes to government agencies or environmental regulators to ensure they are operating within legal limits. In addition, monitoring volumes helps ensure adherence to water abstraction and discharge permits.
  
  
• Cost Control. It is important to keep track of operational costs related to production. Minimising the unnecessary treatment of water conserves energy, chemicals, and labour.
  
  
• Operational Efficiency. Monitoring production helps optimise the performance of pumps, filters, and other equipment as well as identifying inefficiencies or losses in the system, such as those lost through leakage or equipment malfunction.
  
  
• Leak Detection and Loss Prevention. A mismatch between production volumes and water actually delivered to end-customers can indicate leaks or unauthorised use. It is important to support the efforts to reduce non-revenue water (water that is produced but not billed).
  
  
• Planning and Forecasting. Historical data on production volumes inform infrastructure planning, investment in new facilities, or expansion of capacity. Water companies need accurate information when modelling future needs and climate-related impacts on water availability.
  
  
• Quality Assurance. Production volume data can be correlated with water quality data to ensure that treated water consistently meets safety standards and can help identify when changes in volume might affect treatment effectiveness.

The Aquadvanced® Water Supply module for Production Planning is an advanced tool designed to streamline water resource management. By analysing demand forecasts, reservoir levels, and operational constraints, it creates efficient production and transport strategies. The system adapts to scenarios like drought, minimises waste, and prevents shortages, ensuring sustainable water supply. 

Integrated with real-time systems, such as the Aquadvanced® Energy module, it dynamically adjusts to changing conditions, offering flexible and responsive management. Ideal for operators seeking to optimise water production, reduce costs, and enhance resource sustainability.

 

• Cost Efficiency: Optimises water production by aligning with demand and prioritising energy-efficient water sources, helping operators reduce operational costs and meet sustainability goals.

• Flexibility and Adaptability: Enables operators to incorporate specific constraints, such as regulatory requirements or local conditions, and simulate scenarios to plan effectively for seasonal variations and regional needs.

• Sustainable Demand Management: Supports long-term planning by considering annual abstraction limits and seasonal fluctuations, ensuring compliance with UK water regulations and promoting sustainable water use.

• Enhanced Decision-Making: Offers detailed simulations, accurate forecasts, and side-by-side scenario comparisons, empowering operators to make data-driven decisions for efficient and reliable water resource management.

Aquadvanced® Production Planning offers additional benefits.

Operational Efficiency

• Faster decision-making: Data-driven systems can analyse data and suggest optimal actions quicker than manual processes
  
• Predictive maintenance: reducing downtime and maintenance costs
  
• Automation of repetitive tasks: Reduces the dependency on manual input for routine monitoring and response
  
  

Scalability and Complexity

• Growing network size: As water networks expand (urban growth, aging infrastructure), relying on human memory and manual logs becomes untenable
  
• Complex systems: Multiple pressure zones, valves, pumps, reservoirs, and variable demand patterns require analytics
  
  

Improved Accuracy and Reliability

• Reduced human error: Manual processes are prone to inconsistency and error, especially under stress or during shifts.
  
• Objective decision-making: Data reduces reliance on subjective or experiential knowledge, which can vary between operators
  
  

• Crisis response: Data-driven systems can help simulate and prepare for droughts, floods, or contamination events
  
• Knowledge retention: Institutional knowledge can be lost when staff retire or leave; data systems help capture and retain operational knowledge

The AQUADVANCED® suite has benefitted from many thousands of collective working years of experience by SUEZ as a water and wastewater operating company globally. 

The suite is made for operators. For over 15 years the digital solutions teams have worked directly with operators at the front face of water company control rooms to make sure that the solutions work for them, providing operators with practical tools to make their roles and operations run smoothly. 

AQUADVANCED® is built on a common database platform that is optimised for the real-time collection, verification, storage, display and analysis of data coming from multiple sources. Furthermore, a common data visualisation platform offers advanced dashboarding, reporting and data analytics capabilities across all suite modules. 

Offered in the UK, the AQUADVANCED® suite includes:

• AQUADVANCED® Water Supply with production planning and real-time optimisation modules for water distribution networks.
  
• AQUADVANCED® Water Networks, an advanced analytics tool for monitoring water quality and losses in distribution networks in real time.
  
• AQUADVANCED® Urban Drainage, a solution for flood prevention, bathing water quality and monitoring, and environmental protection that helps optimise wastewater operations and asset performance.
  
• AQUADVANCED® Plant for both water and wastewater plants.