California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
Even the researchers at the University of California, Davis, were surprised by their recent findings.
Whereas we generally take for granted the water that flows from our taps at home and at work it takes energy for water to be pumped into water systems, to be treated and to be pumped into your residence and place of business. But with water conservation being touted as the new norm in drought- plagued California, researchers at UC Davis, chose to determine water conservation’s impact on potential energy savings.
During 2015’s peak summer months, the savings from reduced water consumption equaled the benefit of all energy efficiency initiatives offered by the state’s major investor-owned utilities combined at less than a third of the cost. More specifically, water conservation between July and September 2015 showed a savings of 460 gigawatt (GWh) versus the 459.4 GWh saved from all the energy conservation programs by Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, Southern California Gas Company and San Diego Gas and Electric.
UC Davis researchers constructed an interactive web application showing California’s 23.9 water reduction rate from its baseline 2013 levels versus June 2015 to February 2016 saved 922,543 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, or the equivalent to power approximately 135,000 for a year. The reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from the decreased energy use is approximately 219,653 metric tons – as if 50,000 cars were removed from the streets for a year.
“We were quite surprised when we looked at the numbers,” said Frank Loge, director of the UC Davis Center for Water-Energy Efficiency, which produced the new analysis. “I think people have known this intuitively for a couple of years, but our analysis highlighted it,” he added.
UC Davis had entered a contest, held by the State Water Resources Control Board, to promote innovative uses of public data. Max Gomberg, conservation manager for the state water board, expressed his surprise at the researchers’ findings, saying, “The numbers were surprisingly large for those of us who have been in this field for some time now. I was pleasantly surprised at the magnitude of the action.”
However, Loge acknowledged that the energy savings from water conservation is probably higher than what he and his researchers have found since the study did not account for the electricity used for wastewater treatment and disposition.
“The actual energy saved is quite a bit greater than our analysis,” Loge said. “Our analysis is quite conservative.
“I think one of the biggest lessons for me and others in the state as we begin to think about the path forward is the real potential to invest energy efficiency money into water conservation,” he added.
