title: Geographic footprint of electricity use for water services in the Western U.S.
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.
authors: Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185, United States.
authors: Vincent C
authors: VC
authors: Tidwell
authors: Barbie
authors: B
authors: Moreland
authors: Katie
authors: K
authors: Zemlick
mesh_terms: D003246:Conservation of Energy Resources / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004560:Electricity; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D062305:Geographic Mapping; D014481:United States; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods; D060753:Water Quality / Q000592:standards; D014881:Water Supply / Q000706:statistics & numerical data