Reduction of Water Treatment During The Peak Period of Electricity Charges: A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find the best way to reduce the cost of water production byreducing electricity consumption. Electricity accounts for 22 % of the total cost of water production.At Ban Go Tha water treatment plant, it was found that 60 % of the cost comes from electricity usedduring the peak period. This study focuses on determining a method to reduce the electricity cost byre-scheduling the hourly production in such a way that electricity consumption is reduced during thepeak period. This study was carried out by modeling the problem in a computer program calledARENA 8.01. This program compared the electricity cost from computer simulation with the actualcost of the water processing at Ban Go Tha plant. Two schemes of production were devised to dealwith the problem. The fist scheme followed the existing production processes but hourly productionwas re-scheduled with considering the operating shifts. The results of the study revealed that thisscheme could reduce electricity cost by 11.57% of the total power consumption. The second schemealso followed the existing production processes and the hourly production was modified taking intoaccount operating shifts. It was found that the second scheme of operation could reduce electricitycost by 8.7% of the total power cost. However, the second scheme is more appropriate than the fistbecause it is simpler to implement with less operational errors