Nowadays, a large number of water utilities still manage their operation on the instant water demand of the network, meaning that the use of the equipment is conditioned by the immediate water necessity. The water reservoirs of the networks are filled using pumps that start working when the water level reaches a specified minimum, stopping when it reaches a maximum level. Shifting the focus to water management based on future demand allows use of the equipment when energy is cheaper, taking advantage of the electricity tariff in action, thus bringing significant financial savings over time. Short-term water demand forecasting is a crucial step to support decision making regarding the equipment operation management. For this purpose, forecasting methodologies are analyzed and implemented. Several machine learning methods, such as neural networks, random forests, support vector machines and k-nearest neighbors, are evaluated using real data from two Portuguese water utilities. Moreover, the influence of factors such as weather, seasonality, amount of data used in training and forecast window is also analysed. A weighted parallel strategy that gathers the advantages of the different machine learning techniques is suggested. The results are validated and compared with those achieved by autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) also using benchmarks.

Taking into account the issues associated with climate change and reliance on external sources of energy, among others, the European Union and its commission have developed a strategy for transitioning to a climate-neutral economy by 2050. In this sense, a wide-ranging package was adopted to ensure the EU meets its climate and energy targets for the years 2020, 2030, and 2050. Hence, energy efficiency is a key principle of the European Union, as is energy saving and the development of new and renewable forms of energy. The most evident force is the European Efficiency Directive, adopted in 2012, which embraced a set of measures such as legal obligations to establish energy-saving schemes and/or alternative measures in the Member States. Concerning final energy consumption, the industrial sector is the second biggest consumer of final energy and one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Some publications have studied the effectiveness of European policies, but they generally focus on a macro perspective. Few present case studies in specific industries, especially in intensive energy industries such as the ceramic industry. In this context, its higher consumption forces it to find solutions. From a challenge posed by the company, this paper presents a case study in the Portuguese ceramic industry. This study is motivated by the high energy consumption and associated costs. The main purposes of this study are to check the effectiveness of the applied measures resulting from the audit carried out in 2018, to improve energy efficiency, and to study the feasibility of implementing renewable energy sources. This work consisted of four phases: (i) studying the significant impacts of energy costs on the company; (ii) verifying if the energy indicator goals were achieved, using the 2018 energy audit as a reference; (iii) suggesting actions to improve energy efficiency and checking their effectiveness; and (iv) studying the feasibility of implementing renewable energy sources. The measures taken not only contributed to the achievement of the company’s goals established in the Portuguese National Energy and Climate Plan but also enabled them to meet the annual and end goals for 2024 outlined in their energy rationalization plan. This was a consequence of the mandatory energy audit conducted in 2018 under the Portuguese Intensive Energy Consumption Management System (IECMS). In this sense, this case study provides a practical demonstration of how mandatory European policies and regulations at the member state level can help enterprises improve their energy efficiency. It also highlights the importance of evaluating renewable energy constraints rather than adopting them directly as a panacea.