Geographic footprint of electricity use for water services in the Western U.S

Environ Sci Technol. 2014;48(15):8897-904. doi: 10.1021/es5016845. Epub 2014 Jul 8.

Abstract

A significant fraction of our nation's electricity use goes to lift, convey, and treat water, while the resulting expenditures on electricity represent a key budgetary consideration for water service providers. To improve understanding of the electricity-for-water interdependency, electricity used in providing water services is mapped at the regional, state and county level for the 17-conterminous states in the Western U.S. This study is unique in estimating electricity use for large-scale conveyance and agricultural pumping as well as mapping these electricity uses along with that for drinking and wastewater services at a state and county level. Results indicate that drinking and wastewater account for roughly 2% of total West-wide electricity use, while an additional 1.2% is consumed by large-scale conveyance projects and 2.6% is consumed by agricultural pumping. The percent of electricity used for water services varies strongly by state with some as high as 34%, while other states expend less than 1%. Every county in the West uses some electricity for water services; however, there is a large disparity in use ranging from 10 MWh/yr to 5.8 TWh/yr. These results support long-term transmission planning in the Western U.S. by characterizing an important component of the electric load.

Publication types

  • Research Support, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Conservation of Energy Resources* / statistics & numerical data
  • Electricity*
  • Energy-Generating Resources*
  • Geographic Mapping*
  • United States
  • Water Purification / methods
  • Water Quality / standards
  • Water Supply* / statistics & numerical data