Ground Water Well Optimization
Citizens Energy Group (Citizens) is a utility company serving the residents of Indianapolis and surrounding counties. Citizens supplies water, wastewater, natural gas, chilled water, and steam to more than 800,000 people. The water system serves customers in central Indiana with treated water from ten (10) water treatment plants, four (4) of which are surface water and six (6) are ground water treatment plants. The treatment facilities operated by Citizens have a combined usable capacity of 257 million gallons per day (MGD) during normal, non-drought, conditions and 247.7 MGD during moderate drought conditions. The system contains 32 finished water storage tanks capable of storing a total of 79 MG. Finished water is distributed through nearly 4,420 miles of water mains to approximately 330,000 customers within Central Indiana. Citizens Westfield is a subsidiary of Citizens Energy Group and provides treated water to 11,000 customers in the Westfield area. The Westfield system is entirely served by 15 ground water wells and interconnections to the Citizens Water System.
The wells are setup in multiple wellfields which are conveyed by a common collection main for each area, these collection mains then feed raw water to three separate water treatment plants. Over time while this system has been expanded, the system conditions have changed. The hydraulic efficiency and capacity of the well collection systems will be evaluated to determine the optimal usage of specific wells during various demand conditions. The students will also review the performance data of the wells to identify where motors or impeller upgrades should be considered and provide recommendations on those improvements. A hydraulic model that confirms these operational scenarios and upgrade requirements is anticipated. They will utilize existing operational data to develop tools to assist with evaluating the anticipated life expectancy for the wells in the Citizens Water and Citizens Westfield Systems. This will allow Citizens to identify the life cycle of individual ground water wells and plan for a replacement strategy.