The Group for the Research on Renewable Energy Systems of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, (GRRES-ULPGC), and EMALSA have developed an artificial intelligence tool capable of anticipating daily water demand in the operating environment of the Las Palmas III desalination plant.
This achievement represents an important step towards smarter, more efficient and more anticipatory water management in island territories and regions affected by water stress.
The tool uses historical water distribution data, weather information and calendar variables, such as public holidays and days of the week, to forecast demand several days in advance. This provides EMALSA with additional support to better plan water production, manage storage tanks and organise maintenance tasks.
One of the main achievements is that the tool has already been integrated into EMALSA’s operational environment through an API connected to the plant’s internal system. This allows the model to work with real operational data and generate useful forecasts for daily decision-making.
During its validation under real operating conditions, the tool achieved an average error of only 2.8%, a particularly relevant result considering that urban water demand depends on many social, climate, tourism-related and operational factors. This level of accuracy shows that artificial intelligence can become a practical ally in improving the day-to-day management of critical infrastructure such as desalination plants.
Its possible applications include anticipating days of high or low demand, improving storage tank management, planning maintenance shutdowns and supporting a more efficient operation of the desalination plant, especially in a context marked by energy costs and the need to integrate more renewable resources.
This development highlights the value of collaboration between university research and industry in creating applied solutions for real-world challenges. In this case, the result is a concrete tool, tested in real operation and aimed at improving the security, efficiency and resilience of water supply in the Canary Islands.
This work is part of the IDIWATER project, co-financed by ERDF funds by the Interreg MAC 2021-2027 Cooperation Programme, and is integrated into the DESAL+ Living LAB Platform.
In this news report broadcast on Canary Islands Television, you can find more information about this topic:
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