This research focuses on how water sector reforms are unfolding in the state of Maharashtra, India. In 2005, Maharashtra launched an ambitious reform programme with support from the World Bank to establish an independent water regulator and make water user associations mandatory for water delivery in the state. The establishment of the regulator, the first of its kind in the Indian water sector, invited much attention from policy makers and civil society organisations after which several Indian states followed Maharashtra's footsteps. Celebrated for its ‘independent' and ‘apolitical' virtues, this model of regulation was designed to provide answers to inefficiency and political opportunism in the water sector. What gained immense traction in the regulatory discourse was the concept of entitlements and the possibility of introducing water markets for ‘efficient' pricing and distribution of water. To date, however, this reform project has faced reversals, limitations and subversions which have been described as ‘evolution' by pro-reformers and ‘failures' by the resisting groups. This thesis shows how a seemingly ‘apolitical' initiative aimed to dilute the authority of the State in the water sector is subverted to shape and reinforce its control. Though the idea of independent water regulator is increasingly getting mainstreamed into water policy discourses in India, divergent framings and rationales have made regulation a deeply contested political process. In Maharashtra, the turf war between politicians, the water resources department and the water regulator coupled with cases of corporate water grab lie at the heart of rule-making for regulation. This has made the authority of the water regulator and the meaning of regulation ambiguous and blurred. This ambiguity in turn shapes the distribution of water entitlements. In the sugarcane belt of Western Maharashtra where farmers access water from different sources, entitlements are shaped by persistent inequities in water distribution. They take on different meanings as they are subsumed into struggles over water control between the irrigation officials and the farmers on one hand, and amongst different groups of the farmers on the other. This struggle over meanings and practices across the reform process constitutes what I call “regulatory cultures” in this thesis. Using anthropological methods to study policy processes, this work shows how water regulation is discursively shaped and becomes a deeply political practice embedded in networks of power. These networks are formed at the intersection of donors, different layers of irrigation bureaucracy, water user associations and prosperous sugarcane farmers. I argue that the architecture of the Indian State, embedded in these very networks, is central to understanding the politics and practice of water regulation in Maharashtra.

Fault location in distribution systems is a critical component of outage management and service restoration, which directly impacts feeder reliability and quality of the electricity supply. Improving fault location methods supports the Department of Energy (DOE) “Grid 2030” initiatives for grid modernization by improving reliability indices of the network. Improving customer average interruption duration index (CAIDI) and system average interruption duration index (SAIDI) are direct advantages of utilizing a suitable fault location method. As distribution systems are gradually evolving into smart distribution systems, application of more accurate fault location methods based on gathered data from various Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs) installed along the feeders is quite feasible. How this may be done and what is the needed methodology to come to such solution is raised and then systematically answered. To reach this goal, the following tasks are carried out: 1) Existing fault location methods in distribution systems are surveyed and their strength and caveats are studied. 2) Characteristics of IEDs in distribution systems are studied and their impacts on fault location method selection and implementation are detailed. 3) A systematic approach for selecting optimal fault location method is proposed and implemented to pinpoint the most promising algorithms for a given set of application requirements. 4) An enhanced fault location method based on voltage sag data gathered from IEDs along the feeder is developed. The method solves the problem of multiple fault location estimations and produces more robust results. 5) An optimal IED placement approach for the enhanced fault location method is developed and practical considerations for its implementation are detailed.

Recently, there have been many initiatives to incorporate advanced controls, two way communications, digital technologies and advanced power system components in the operation and control of power distribution systems. These initiatives are aiming to realize what becomes known as the “Smart grid”. It is expected that a Smart Grid will lead to enhancement in the reliability and efficiency of the power system. The movement towards the Smart Grid is motivated by many factors; the need to integrate more renewable power to mitigate the global warming, the increasing interest in connecting more distributed generation (DG) as a way to postpone large investment in transmission and bulk generation, and the need to increase the reliability of the power system overall to minimize disturbance costs. It is the overall goal of this research to introduce novel distribution system operation techniques to assist in the effort of realizing the “Smart Distribution System” in both normal and system restoration modes. In particular, three main operation functions are dealt with in this research work; Voltage Control, Reactive Power Control and Distribution System Restoration. First for Voltage Control, a reliable and efficient method is proposed to control voltage regulators in order to enable the regulation of multiple feeders with diversified loads using only one regulator provided that no DG is connected to the feeders. Regulator’s tap is selected based on the solution of an integer linear optimization problem. The method has a closed form solution for the optimal tap; that is valuable for real time operation. In addition, necessary condition for feasible solutions is examined. Next, a novel coordinated voltage control scheme is proposed to enable the voltage regulator to efficiently regulate the voltage of multiple feeders in the presence of DGs. The proposed technique is based on placing a Remote Terminal Unit (RTUs) at each DG and each line capacitor. These RTUs coordinate together, through communication, and form a multi-agent system. An important contribution of this research is that the proposed scheme provides the minimum hardware requirement to efficiently estimate the voltage profile of a feeder with DGs. The proposed scheme enables the integration of more DGs into the system by, efficiently, coordinating the operation of voltage regulators and DGs to mitigate voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs to the system. Second, for Reactive Power Control, a decentralized reactive power control scheme is proposed to optimally control switched shunt capacitors of the system in order to minimize system losses and maintain acceptable voltage profile. The proposed algorithm provides capacitors with “Advanced Voltage Sensing” capability to enable capacitors to switch in and out according to the global minimum and maximum voltage of the feeder. The proposed technique utilizes the same RTU used for voltage control and relies on the voltage profile estimation technique proposed in this research for the coordinated voltage control. In addition, novel decentralized algorithm is proposed to estimate the feeder voltage profile change as a result of injecting reactive power at the capacitor bus. The proposed reactive power control scheme can be used to coordinate the operation of any number of capacitors connected to the distribution system. Combining voltage control and reactive power control schemes, generalized coordinated voltage control is proposed to coordinate between DGs, shunt capacitors and voltage regulators in order to achieve optimal voltage control for the distribution system and solve the steady state voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs, hence, allowing more DGs to be connected to the system. Over and above, the proposed generalized coordinated voltage control enables the realization of a new operation-time DG connection impact assessment concept. Based on this concept, the system will carry out a real-time assessment and decide, based on the available control actions, the maximum DG power that can be allowed to connect to the system at particular operating conditions. This new concept will allow great flexibility to the connection of DGs, most notably, when, due to a change in system configuration, the DG is needed to be connected to a feeder other than the one it was planned for during the planning stage. The last operation function dealt with in this research work is the distribution system restoration. Novel decentralized distribution system restoration scheme is proposed. The proposed scheme is based on dividing the distribution system into zones based on the availability of disconnecting switches. Each zone is controlled by an Agent. The restoration is done based on the coordination between these Agents. Proposed communication protocols between Agents are discussed in details. The goal of the proposed restoration scheme is to maximize the restored power while preserving the radial structure of the distribution system and without exceeding the thermal limit of any equipment in the system. As the proposed technique does not assume any supervision from any central point, this technique will enable the realization of a self-healing distribution system restoration.

Chlorine is the primary method for disinfection of drinking water in the United States; however, growing concerns about the potential hazards associated with carcinogenic chlorine disinfection by-products have resulted in increased efforts to develop alternative methods of water disinfection. In addition, it is sometimes difficult to maintain an adequate concentration of free chlorine throughout a drinking water distribution system due to intrusion events and the presence of biofilms.Silver and copper are widely used as environmental biocides and as clinical antimicrobial agents. Copper has been extensively used as an algaecide for many years, and is reported to be one of the most toxic metals to heterotrophic bacteria in aquatic environments. In this study, silver and copper, both individually and in combination, were able to significantly reduce the numbers of the bacterial pathogens Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Mycobacterium fortuitum in aqueous solutions. Silver and copper together could potentially be used as a secondary disinfectant in water treatment because their residual effect is long lasting and no harmful byproducts are generated.Besides water, produce can also be a source of microbial pathogens. Fruits and vegetables are the third leading source in microbial foodborne outbreaks, accounting for more than 10,000 cases of foodborne illness in the U.S. between 1990 and 2001. Alternative produce sanitizers in addition to chlorine were evaluated against foodborne pathogens inoculated onto lettuce. Overall, Fit® (citric acid, grapefruit oil extract) and chlorine yielded the greatest reductions of the study organisms.A large number of compounds are available for use as disinfectants; however, some are highly toxic, corrosive and produce harmful by-products. Natural antimicrobial products are another possible alternative. The efficacy of a natural peptide-based antimicrobial, Absolute Fx, was assessed against bacteria and viruses. Absolute Fx effectively inactivated the study organisms.

Cast iron pipes were installed broadly in North American water utilities. Many of these cast iron pipes are corroded and are continuous sources of Fe(II) ions in drinking water distribution systems. Recent studies have reported that soluble or particulate iron decreases water quality in distribution systems. In this study, an array of bench scale experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of most common water parameters (e.g., pH, PO4, Cl2, and DOM) on the oxidation rate of Fe(II) ions, and on the formation of iron suspense in synthetic water samples. This was accomplished using a 24 full factorial design approach at a 95% confidence level. This study demonstrated that a lower content of iron suspension color, turbidity, and smaller particle size would appear to be obtained in presence of a phosphate based corrosion inhibitor at a pH value of 6.5 compared to a pH value of 8.5. To investigate the impact of Fe(II) ions, phosphate, pH and reaction time, and their interaction on DBPs formation in water samples, this study was conducted following an experimental design approach. Considering all the significant (α = 0.05, p < 0.05) factors, mathematical models for HAAs and THMs prediction were developed using 80 experiments. The models’ adequacy was checked thorough the statistical and graphical diagnostics. Different sources of natural water samples collected from three main water treatment plants in Halifax, Canada, were used to validate the models. This study suggested that the models’ performance were found to be excellent under a wide range of studied variables. Consequently, the most predominant iron oxides (goethite and magnetite) were used to investigate their impact on chlorine decay and DBPs formation study. Goethite and magnetite were also used for the adsorption of DBPs precursor (DOM). The DOM adsorption data illustrated to fit well with the Langmuir adsorption isotherm, indicating monolayer coverage. Molecular weight (MW) distributions of DBPs precursor (DOM) revealed that the higher molecular weight fractions adsorbed preferentially onto goethite followed by magnetite surface. The change of MW distribution of DOM was found to be in reasonable agreement with the change of DBPs formation in iron-water systems.

South Africa is fast approaching an era where its electrical energy demand will surpass the generating capacity of it's primary utility. The reason for this is due to the fact that over the past 10 years, the economic growth in South Africa has increased considerably and has become very energy intensive. South African electrical energy consumption is currently estimated to be growing at a rate of around 1 000 MW per year. Due to the electrical energy demand being the greatest during peak-times, Eskom has introduced various "time of use" tariff structures, such as Megaflex and Ruraflex. These two tariff structures differentiate between standard, peak and off-peak periods of the day, as well as different seasons of the year. The tariffs for these different scenarios are adjusted such that the consumers are persuaded into avoiding unnecessary electrical energy consumption during peak periods. It has been identified that electrical energy consumption can be split into two categories. One of the categories considers sectors where there are a large number of electrical energy consumers, each utilising a negligible amount of power. The other category considers sectors where there are few electrical energy consumers, each utilising large amounts of power. This therefore means that the consumers in the latter category have a great potential in implementing more efficient ways of consuming power. In order to try and control the electrical energy demand problem in South Africa, Eskom has implemented a DSM (Demand Side Management) programme in order to help the larger energy consumers in shifting their peak-time loads to off-peak periods. If the client wishes to shift their load to off-peak periods, Eskom will assist by funding all costs to carry out such a project. According to Eskom's monitoring and verification team, Eskom's DSM initiative has proven to be highly successful. Since the inception of Eskom's DSM programme in 2003, up until the end of 2005, an accumulated total load reduction of 296.3 MW has successfully been realised. At present, most water distribution schemes have been developed without making use of Eskom's DSM initiative. As these schemes consume considerable amounts of electrical energy, they are prime candidates for an initiative such as Eskom's DSM initiative. It had previously been identified that the Vaal Gamagara Water Scheme, situated in Delportshoop, was a prime candidate for Eskom's DSM initiative. Presented in this dissertation are the findings of the DSM investigation. Although the project has yet to be implemented, the proposed intervention methodology was manually tested, where a 3 MW load shift in the evening peak and a 3.6 MW load shift in the morning peak was achieved. If the current intervention methodology is maintained, the annual savings will be in the region of R 830,000.00. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

South Africa is fast approaching an era where its electrical energy demand will surpass the generating capacity of it's primary utility. The reason for this is due to the fact that over the past 10 years, the economic growth in South Africa has increased considerably and has become very energy intensive. South African electrical energy consumption is currently estimated to be growing at a rate of around 1 000 MW per year. Due to the electrical energy demand being the greatest during peak-times, Eskom has introduced various "time of use" tariff structures, such as Megaflex and Ruraflex. These two tariff structures differentiate between standard, peak and off-peak periods of the day, as well as different seasons of the year. The tariffs for these different scenarios are adjusted such that the consumers are persuaded into avoiding unnecessary electrical energy consumption during peak periods. It has been identified that electrical energy consumption can be split into two categories. One of the categories considers sectors where there are a large number of electrical energy consumers, each utilising a negligible amount of power. The other category considers sectors where there are few electrical energy consumers, each utilising large amounts of power. This therefore means that the consumers in the latter category have a great potential in implementing more efficient ways of consuming power. In order to try and control the electrical energy demand problem in South Africa, Eskom has implemented a DSM (Demand Side Management) programme in order to help the larger energy consumers in shifting their peak-time loads to off-peak periods. If the client wishes to shift their load to off-peak periods, Eskom will assist by funding all costs to carry out such a project. According to Eskom's monitoring and verification team, Eskom's DSM initiative has proven to be highly successful. Since the inception of Eskom's DSM programme in 2003, up until the end of 2005, an accumulated total load reduction of 296.3 MW has successfully been realised. At present, most water distribution schemes have been developed without making use of Eskom's DSM initiative. As these schemes consume considerable amounts of electrical energy, they are prime candidates for an initiative such as Eskom's DSM initiative. It had previously been identified that the Vaal Gamagara Water Scheme, situated in Delportshoop, was a prime candidate for Eskom's DSM initiative. Presented in this dissertation are the findings of the DSM investigation. Although the project has yet to be implemented, the proposed intervention methodology was manually tested, where a 3 MW load shift in the evening peak and a 3.6 MW load shift in the morning peak was achieved. If the current intervention methodology is maintained, the annual savings will be in the region of R 830,000.00. / Thesis (M.Ing. (Electrical Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Water supply and distribution infrastructures are vital for current life. They have a significant role in public health, providing safe water for drinking and human consumption as well as for essential non-potable uses such as fire fighting. These diverse objectives create challenges for everyone who must address in some way the actual performance of the system. This research critically evaluates all common objectives of conventional design approaches and evaluates the advantages and drawbacks of various performance measures. New ideas for a more realistic and comprehensive approach to the design, operation assessment of WDS are proposed. A new approach, called a Risk-based Performance Assessment, for hydraulic performance evaluation is tentatively proposed. It is based on integration of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability as three basic operational indices in the operation of WDS. Furthermore, the Total Life-cycle Cost evaluation approach is tentatively proposed based on considering all major costs of a WDS.

Water supply and distribution infrastructures are vital for current life. They have a significant role in public health, providing safe water for drinking and human consumption as well as for essential non-potable uses such as fire fighting. These diverse objectives create challenges for everyone who must address in some way the actual performance of the system. This research critically evaluates all common objectives of conventional design approaches and evaluates the advantages and drawbacks of various performance measures. New ideas for a more realistic and comprehensive approach to the design, operation assessment of WDS are proposed. A new approach, called a Risk-based Performance Assessment, for hydraulic performance evaluation is tentatively proposed. It is based on integration of reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability as three basic operational indices in the operation of WDS. Furthermore, the Total Life-cycle Cost evaluation approach is tentatively proposed based on considering all major costs of a WDS.

Recently, there have been many initiatives to incorporate advanced controls, two way communications, digital technologies and advanced power system components in the operation and control of power distribution systems. These initiatives are aiming to realize what becomes known as the “Smart grid”. It is expected that a Smart Grid will lead to enhancement in the reliability and efficiency of the power system. The movement towards the Smart Grid is motivated by many factors; the need to integrate more renewable power to mitigate the global warming, the increasing interest in connecting more distributed generation (DG) as a way to postpone large investment in transmission and bulk generation, and the need to increase the reliability of the power system overall to minimize disturbance costs. It is the overall goal of this research to introduce novel distribution system operation techniques to assist in the effort of realizing the “Smart Distribution System” in both normal and system restoration modes. In particular, three main operation functions are dealt with in this research work; Voltage Control, Reactive Power Control and Distribution System Restoration. First for Voltage Control, a reliable and efficient method is proposed to control voltage regulators in order to enable the regulation of multiple feeders with diversified loads using only one regulator provided that no DG is connected to the feeders. Regulator’s tap is selected based on the solution of an integer linear optimization problem. The method has a closed form solution for the optimal tap; that is valuable for real time operation. In addition, necessary condition for feasible solutions is examined. Next, a novel coordinated voltage control scheme is proposed to enable the voltage regulator to efficiently regulate the voltage of multiple feeders in the presence of DGs. The proposed technique is based on placing a Remote Terminal Unit (RTUs) at each DG and each line capacitor. These RTUs coordinate together, through communication, and form a multi-agent system. An important contribution of this research is that the proposed scheme provides the minimum hardware requirement to efficiently estimate the voltage profile of a feeder with DGs. The proposed scheme enables the integration of more DGs into the system by, efficiently, coordinating the operation of voltage regulators and DGs to mitigate voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs to the system. Second, for Reactive Power Control, a decentralized reactive power control scheme is proposed to optimally control switched shunt capacitors of the system in order to minimize system losses and maintain acceptable voltage profile. The proposed algorithm provides capacitors with “Advanced Voltage Sensing” capability to enable capacitors to switch in and out according to the global minimum and maximum voltage of the feeder. The proposed technique utilizes the same RTU used for voltage control and relies on the voltage profile estimation technique proposed in this research for the coordinated voltage control. In addition, novel decentralized algorithm is proposed to estimate the feeder voltage profile change as a result of injecting reactive power at the capacitor bus. The proposed reactive power control scheme can be used to coordinate the operation of any number of capacitors connected to the distribution system. Combining voltage control and reactive power control schemes, generalized coordinated voltage control is proposed to coordinate between DGs, shunt capacitors and voltage regulators in order to achieve optimal voltage control for the distribution system and solve the steady state voltage rise problem caused by the connection of DGs, hence, allowing more DGs to be connected to the system. Over and above, the proposed generalized coordinated voltage control enables the realization of a new operation-time DG connection impact assessment concept. Based on this concept, the system will carry out a real-time assessment and decide, based on the available control actions, the maximum DG power that can be allowed to connect to the system at particular operating conditions. This new concept will allow great flexibility to the connection of DGs, most notably, when, due to a change in system configuration, the DG is needed to be connected to a feeder other than the one it was planned for during the planning stage. The last operation function dealt with in this research work is the distribution system restoration. Novel decentralized distribution system restoration scheme is proposed. The proposed scheme is based on dividing the distribution system into zones based on the availability of disconnecting switches. Each zone is controlled by an Agent. The restoration is done based on the coordination between these Agents. Proposed communication protocols between Agents are discussed in details. The goal of the proposed restoration scheme is to maximize the restored power while preserving the radial structure of the distribution system and without exceeding the thermal limit of any equipment in the system. As the proposed technique does not assume any supervision from any central point, this technique will enable the realization of a self-healing distribution system restoration.