The water sector demands large amounts of energy. For example, nearly 20% of the electricity and 30% of the non-power-plant natural gas used in California goes to producing, moving, treating, and heating water. While managing... [ view full abstract ]
The water sector demands large amounts of energy. For example, nearly 20% of the electricity and 30% of the non-power-plant natural gas used in California goes to producing, moving, treating, and heating water. While managing these integrated systems represents a significant challenge for both water and energy utilities, there is also a great opportunity to design targeted programs that jointly conserve both water and energy
However, deploying linked water-energy programs in the water sector requires clear, defensible methods for calculating the energy intensity (EI) of water, and reliable, verifiable monitoring of energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions savings. This is no small challenge because energy use (and the subsequent GHG emissions) vary significantly depending on where and when it’s used within the water infrastructure. No two water agencies are the same, so there’s no one-size-fits-all EI number that can be given to a gallon of water.
Towards this end, the Center for Water-Energy Efficiency (CWEE) at the University of California – Davis has been designing and developing data management and analytical tools for estimating and verifying both water and energy savings across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Our approach begins with a system-wide analysis of EI that leverages information from water utilities’ Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. SCADA systems provide operators with real-time control over the water infrastructure enabling them to manage flow and pressure across the network. Our approach repurposes SCADA data streams towards calculating and monitoring the energy consumed across the water system based on the specific layout of the infrastructure network.
Once we establish the geography of our EI estimates across the water supply system, we integrate customer usage data by overlaying a map of water consumption by customer type over the utility service territory. In this way, we establish a direct link between the spatial heterogeneity of the water system EI with the spatial variability of customer demand. This approach allows for the detailed estimation of water, energy, and cost savings of real (past) and/or hypothetical (future) conservation programs. In other words, we leverage the high-resolution (geographically and temporally) assessment of energy intensity to calculate granular estimates of linked energy-GHG savings based on the timing and location of observed or anticipated water conservation.
In tandem to developing the analytical approach, we also developed a web-based dashboard to streamline the analysis and exploration of various conservation scenarios. Further, the dashboard is designed to be transferable across water agencies to enable broader accessibility to these tools. By leveraging the water-energy relationship in the design and assessment of targeted water conservation programs, utilities can easily demonstrate the multiple benefits of their conservation efforts as well as potential secure additional revenue streams (i.e. energy efficiency and GHG reduction investments) to fund the conservation itself.
• Infrastructure systems, the built environment, and smart and connected infrastructure , • Management and technology for sustainable and resilient energy, water, food, materials, , • Sustainable urban systems
