Environmental targets and saving energy have become ones of the world main concerns over the last years and it will increase and become more important in a near future. The world population growth rate is the major factor contributing for the increase in global pollution and energy and water consumption. In 2005, the world population was approximately 6.5 billion and this number is expected to reach 9 billion by 2050 [United Nations, 2008. www.un.org, accessed on July]. Water supply systems use energy for pumping water, so new strategies must be developed and implemented in order to reduce this consumption. In addition, if there is excess of hydraulic energy in a water system, some type of water power generation can be implemented. This paper presents an optimization model that determines the best hourly operation for 1 day, according to the electricity tariff, for a pumped storage system with water consumption and inlet discharge. Wind turbines are introduced in the system. The rules obtained as output of the optimization process are subsequently introduced in a hydraulic simulator, in order to verify the system behaviour. A comparison with the normal water supply operating mode is done and the energy cost savings with this hybrid solution are calculated. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.