Sensor Placement Quantum Optimization in Water Distribution Networks

Having the ability to efficiently detect the location where a leak occurs in a network is high on the bucket-list of any water distribution company worldwide. The determination of “how many” pressure-sensors to put “where” in the network is known to be an NP-hard problem.

delaware in Belgium joined forces with De Watergroep (Belgium) and KWR (The Netherlands) and developed a tractable approach to determine “how many” and “where”.

The QUBO-formulation of this problem allows for a fast determination of the optimal number and location of pressure-sensors via D-Wave’s quantum solver, which now becomes feasible in days instead of centuries.

This webinar explains the steps taken and the outcome reached.