SINERGEA - Energy: Modelling energy consumption in wastewater systems during rainfall events

Abstract

The urban water cycle infrastructures are important consumers of electricity. Thus several efforts have been made recently to increase their energy efficiency. During rainfall events, the increase in flows pumped by interceptor sewers and treated in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) can lead to significant increases in energy consumption. These flow increases occur not only in the combined sewer systems, but also in separate wastewater systems, due to water infiltration into the sewers, the rainfall-derived infiltration and inflow (RDII) component, and illicit misconnections between stormwater and sewage systems. Controlling rainfall-derived inflows into wastewater systems is a difficult challenge that has received increasing attention