Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China

Abstract

Intra-national electricity transmission drives virtual water transfer from electricity production regions to electricity consumption regions. In China, the water-intensive thermoelectric power industry is expanding quickly in many water-scarce energy production hubs in northern and northwestern provinces. This study constructed a node-flow model of inter-province electricity transmission to investigate the virtual water and scarcity-adjusted virtual water (or virtual scarce water) embodied in the electricity transmission network. It is revealed that total inter-provincial virtual water transfer embodied in electricity transmission was 623 million m 3 in 2011, equivalent to 12.7% of the national total thermoelectric water consumption. The top three largest single virtual water flows are West Inner Mongolia-to-Beijing (44 million m 3), East Inner Mongolia-to-Liaoning (39 million m 3), and Guizhou-to-Guangdong (37 million m 3). If the actual volumes of consumptive water use are translated into scarcity-adjusted water consumption based on Water Stress Index, West Inner Mongolia (81 million m 3), Shanxi (63 million m 3) and Ningxia (30 million m 3) become the top three exporters of virtual scarce water. Many ongoing long-distance electricity transmission projects in China will enlarge the scale of scarce water outflows from northwestern regions and potentially increase their water stress.

Measuring scarce water saving from interregional virtual water flows in China

“…Although several previous studies have linked virtual water trade with regional water stress (e.g. Zhao et al 2015, Feng et al 2014, Zhao et al 2016, Zhang et al 2017, none has assessed regional water stress alleviation/intensification through interregional virtual water trade. Since the amount of scarce water saved represents the extent of water stress alleviation through trade, scarce water saving accounting can be useful as a guide for interregional economic restructuring towards water stress alleviation.…”

Estimating air pollution and health loss embodied in electricity transfers: An inter-provincial analysis in China

“…(2017) develop a network approach to account for embodied CO 2 emissions of purchased electricity in China, and compare the results with the traditional direct trade-adjustment method. Finally, Zhang et al (2017) investigate the virtual water resources embodied in electricity transfer, and introduce a water stress index into the framework. These studies provide valuable information about the assessment method, but they all ignore air pollution embodied in regional electricity transfers.…”

Optimization of virtual water flow via grain trade within China

“…The paradox that arid regions transfer virtual water to wet regions is contributing to more unsustainable and uneven economic and environmental development (Chen et al, 2017). Based on previous studies, some literatures had put forward policy recommendations such as optimizing trade structures (Zhang et al, 2017).Virtual water provides an innovative application of virtual water trade in the traditional allocation of physical water resources in water scarce regions (Ye et al, 2018). Cheng (2003) introduced the concept of virtual water to China and noted that it is of great significance to optimize the trade structure of water-intensive agricultural products.…”