An optimal control strategy for municipal wastewater MBR treatment was applied to investigate its efficiency in minimizing the pumping energy of the system. Based on a simple mathematical model to capture the dynamic evolution of the TransMembrane Pressure (TMP), an optimal switching instant between filtration/backwash was determined to reduce the supplementary pumping energy caused by fouling for a predefined net permeate volume. A MBR pilot treating municipal wastewater was used to generate dynamic data of TMP. T he pilot was operated with two different strategies: a classical strategy with known operating conditions (10 min filtration and 45s backwash) and an optimal strategy where the frequency was determined based on adjustment of model parameters. Results demonstrated that a satisfactory agreement was achieved between experimental data and model prediction. The optimal strategy was then applied experimentally on the MBR pilot. The two strategies were compared in terms of energy consumption and fouling degree. The results showed the feasibility of the optimal solution and its reliability to reduce the pumping energy of the system by 7% and decrease residual fouling by 14% compared with a classical strategy.