A Fuzzy-based Control Scheme for Recapturing Waste Energy in Water Pressure Reducing Valves

This paper proposes a flexible and secure control scheme for recapturing the waste energy across water pressure reducing valves using an in-conduit hydro-powered generator. A laboratory scaled platform for investigating the hydropower generator is established to model the water supply stations. The wasted energy is used by the in-conduit generator to generate electricity. A fuzzy-based control scheme is designed to maximize the generator efficiency such that the required water pressure and flow on the customer side are not affected due to this waste energy recapturing. In the proposed scheme, the generator operating characteristics are taken into consideration to prevent any damage. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme for different flow and pressure scenarios is evaluated.