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

Sowby, Robert B.; Burian, Steven J.; Chini, Christopher M.; Stillwell, Ashlynn S.

doi:10.1002/awwa.1233

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…This process of data collection and formatting can be streamlined by developing a uniform national database of monthly water production and energy usage at local drinking water and wastewater treatment facilities (Chini & Stillwell, 2016; Sowby et al., 2019). We recognize that developing this data set would require significant time and financial investments and still does not address the issue of metering inaccuracies that pose a significant impediment to drawing meaningful conclusions from data (Kennedy & Hoornweg, 2012).…”

Section: Data Challenges and Path Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These aggregate material flow studies can inform an urban environment's sustainable development with respect to the surrounding environment's ability to assimilate waste and regenerate necessary resources (Goodland & Daly, 1996). While these city‐level data can be challenging to obtain (Chini & Stillwell, 2016; Sowby, Burian, Chini, & Stillwell, 2019), they are much more accessible than finer resolution, meter‐level data and provide a level of uniformity between studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A mass balance approach to urban water analysis using multi‐resolution data

Hastie

Chini

Stillwell

2020

J of Industrial Ecology

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With a growing urban population and increasing climate uncertainty, it is necessary to quantitatively understand the flux of resources through cities, specifically energy and water resources. Many methods exist to analyze the urban energy–water nexus based on either physical characteristics of the system or using available data. While data‐driven approaches can be valuable, they are often challenging to duplicate on a large scale due to data availability, or they do not allow for drawing specific, detailed conclusions. Our work seeks to remedy these challenges by using multi‐resolution data and a mass balance approach to provide a reproducible and scalable method for analyzing water and embedded energy systems in cities with varying levels of infrastructure and technological advancements. Using a combination of utility‐scale and meter‐level data, we provide several quantitative performance gauges on a monthly and annual time scale. This process reveals notable seasonal variation in water demand, non‐revenue water, and embedded energy, providing a holistic understanding of water and its embedded resources. Our work further confronts the challenges of integrating disparate data sets into a uniform format to allow for accurate analysis. These particular data, coupled with a mass balance methodology, facilitate the examination of an urban area from top‐down and bottom‐up perspectives, yielding opportunities to quantify additional performance metrics beyond a single approach.

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Section: Data Challenges and Path Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A mass balance approach to urban water analysis using multi‐resolution data

Hastie

Chini

Stillwell

2020

J of Industrial Ecology

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“…Another major finding from this study was the difficulty in finding easily accessible, long-term, detailed, and coupled energy and water data from water utilities across the United States [15,45,46]. With limited data, the analysis process was not straightforward and resulted in a substantial amount of manipulation to result in a usable format.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Economy of Scale of Energy Intensity in Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

Rapp,

Sowby,

Williams

2024

Water

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More water utilities are adopting aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) to balance long-term water supply and demand. Due to large implementation and operation costs, ASR projects need to be optimized, particularly for energy use, which is a major operating expense. This study examines the relationships among energy use, recharge, and recovery at two ASR projects in the western United States. The major finding is an economy of scale for recovery processes, but not for gravity-fed recharge processes. The economy of scale found is as follows: the energy intensity recovered decreases with volume. This suggests it is more energy-efficient to recover large volumes of water in one interval instead of recovering smaller volumes at more frequent intervals. The H2Oaks recovery process experienced a 78% decrease in energy intensity from 0 to 50,000 m3 recovered, while the Sand Hollow site experienced a 43% decrease in energy intensity from 0 to 50,000 m3 recovered. Statistical analyses of the recovery process showed p values lower than 0.0001, R2 values between 0.43 and 0.57, and a RMSE value between 0.55 and 2.1, indicating the presence of a moderate correlation between energy and volume. This economy of scale has been observed in multiple instances in water and wastewater treatment. This finding not only has applications to ASR but also to all recovery or recharge wells, whether or not they are paired with each other. Furthermore, this study confirms the need for more reliable and accessible energy data to fully understand the implications of the energy–water nexus.

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“…The data quality issues the authors encountered when matching the power bills to the facilities are the same as described in detail by Chini and Stillwell (2017) and Sowby et al (2019a), who concluded that acquiring the associated energy data is one of the greatest obstacles to studies of water and wastewater energy efficiency. Other guidance for managing energy data is provided by the Water Research Foundation (Badruzzaman et al 2020) and the US Department of Energy (Lemar and de Fontaine 2017).…”

Section: Data Qualitymentioning

confidence: 96%

Discussion of “Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Water-Resource Recovery Facilities: Opportunities and Barriers” by Matthew Thompson, Mohamed F. Dahab, Robert E. Williams, and Bruce Dvorak

Sowby¹

2021

J. Environ. Eng.

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The authors have contributed valuable data on process-level energy use at a few small Nebraska wastewater facilities and have characterized common barriers to energy efficiency efforts facing the wastewater industry. This discussion highlights a few gaps in the authors' literature review, validates some of their findings, and offers additional observations based on the discusser's experience in energy management programs with more than 60 US water and wastewater facilities.

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

Abstract: Gathering utility‐specific energy data is challenging now, but unified data acquisition and management practices could close gaps in the energy–water nexus.

Cited by 19 publications

References 13 publications

A mass balance approach to urban water analysis using multi‐resolution data

A mass balance approach to urban water analysis using multi‐resolution data

Economy of Scale of Energy Intensity in Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR)

Discussion of “Improving Energy Efficiency of Small Water-Resource Recovery Facilities: Opportunities and Barriers” by Matthew Thompson, Mohamed F. Dahab, Robert E. Williams, and Bruce Dvorak

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