Survey of Energy Requirements for Public Water Supply in the United States

Abstract

National studies on drinking water systems’ energy requirements are sparse, and only limited empirical data have been available. This study adds considerable spatial and temporal detail to better characterize the requirements in the continental United States. Annual water use and energy use observations were collected from a panel of 109 water systems. The data show that the energy intensity of public water supply exhibits (1) an approximate log‐normal distribution; (2) regional patterns, with higher intensities in the western United States than the eastern United States; (3) significant interannual variations, with mixed increases and decreases; and (4) relationships to location, water source type, and system size that can be used to estimate energy intensities for other systems. Improved data collection is recommended. The data here contribute to several well‐documented research needs and will facilitate further study of the water–energy nexus with benefits to federal agencies, researchers, local water utilities, and national security practitioners.

Conformance of Public Water Use Data to Benford's Law

“…Second, the US Geological Survey's (USGS's) National Water‐Use Science Project provided nonzero data (public supply, total withdrawals) from 2010 on 3,124 counties, also aggregated by 52 states/territories, in million gallons per day (Maupin et al ). Finally, Sowby and Burian (, ) provided nonzero data, in years ranging from 2006 to 2015, on 109 public water systems in 36 states, in million gallons per year. Table presents summary statistics in consistent units.…”

Energy use for urban water management by utilities and households in Los Angeles

“…The current system relies on imported water for a majority of supply from three main sources: the Colorado River Aqueduct (CRA), the California Aqueduct through the State Water Project (SWP), and the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the Owens Valley. While all the sources convey water over significant distances, two of them (CRA and SWP) require significant energy to get water over high elevations into the LA Basin, causing the electricity intensity to exceed that of many other urban areas (Garrison et al 2009, Sanders 2016, Sokolow et al 2016, Sowby and Burian 2017, Stokes-Draut et al 2017, Mika et al 2018 (see Supporting Information).…”

Data Challenges and Solutions in Energy‐for‐Water: Experience From Two Recent Studies

“…While this challenge has long been recognized in the literature, two recent studies demonstrate in practical terms just how difficult gathering utility‐specific energy data can be and build the case for more unified data acquisition and management practices. Working independently and simultaneously, our two research teams—Sowby and Burian (, ) at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and Chini and Stillwell (, , 2017) at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign—conducted remarkably similar research on the energy requirements of public water systems and reached many of the same conclusions. The similarity and simultaneity of our projects testify to their importance and timeliness to the water industry.…”

“…While compiling the data sets now published online (Chini & Stillwell , Sowby & Burian ), we each encountered similar difficulties and experiences that, when generalized, should prove valuable to others working in the water industry. In this article, we compare our two teams’ data collection experiences and recommend actions to address a critical data gap in the energy–water nexus.…”