Dimensioning of a Water Pumping System by the Systematic Scanning Method

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a wind pumping system coupled to a reservoir of water storage. The objective functions used in the design process are the loss of power probability (LPSP) concept for the reliability, the life cycle cost (LCC) for the economic evaluation and the CO2 emissions of life cycle regarding the processing of the various components of the system. The presented model, allows an optimised design of wind pumping system taking into account technical, economic and environmental criteria while ensuring the needs of the consumer without interruption. The optimisation is based on a systematic scanning approach that makes it possible to generate without restriction all the candidate solutions. The design variables considered are the wind turbines number (NW), the type of wind (TW), the tank number (Ntank), the type of tank (Ttank), type mast (Ttower) and the total head (Thead), that is to say, the type of well. A case study is conducted to analyse one wind turbine pumping project. The system is designed to supply drinking water in a rural community located at Sèmè-Kpodji, Benin (6°22’N, 2°37’E, 7m). The ten best solutions are presented and the one with the greatest desirability is a set of 11 wind turbines and 4 storage tanks (a 36.4% ratio) of type (1), with an initial investment cost of 27368 US dollars and a water shedding rate (LPSP) of 9.55%.