Decarbonizing electricity generation has become a critical element in plans to limit the impact of climate change. Renewable-generating resources are quickly becoming important contributors to this effort. However, maintaining a diverse generation mix is important—and technologies like carbon capture and hydrogen can enable traditional natural gas and coal plants to continue to operate with minimal carbon footprint. Nuclear owners are seeing their plants’ lives extended—and new plants proposed—for the same reason.
However, these thermal strategies all place heavy burdens on a valuable and often threatened resource: water. Whether it’s for cooling operations, carbon capture, or as a hydrogen feedstock, water is key for their successful operation.
Scientists refer to this interaction between water and electricity as the Water-Energy Nexus, and complicating this nexus are the growing demands for electricity production and increased pressure on freshwater use. It’s at the center of EPRI’s third annual Water-Energy Transformation (WET) Forum, to be held October 22-23, 2024 in Atlanta. This year’s WET forum is especially timely as electricity companies, manufacturers, and other industrial-scale operations work to meet decarbonization goals, ideally without negatively impacting freshwater supply in the process. Water conservation is critical as demand for it is growing for a range of other uses, including industrial applications, agriculture, data center cooling, and manufacturing. Because of the wide-ranging impacts of the water-energy nexus, we’re hoping for broad participation across affected industries, including utilities, data center operators, food and beverage producers, pharmaceutical companies, municipalities, and others exploring their carbon-reduction options.
Climate Change Drives Urgency
Water has always been a part of electricity production, but the conversation has become more urgent lately, as climate change is driving water shortages in some regions while electricity demand continues to climb. Though all but 3% of U.S. power-related water withdrawals are returned to their sources, the industry was responsible for 41% of all U.S. water withdrawals in 2015, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Even returned water (discharged to the environment) can pose challenges if it’s not treated to applicable water quality standards after use. “Generating power comes with a certain water footprint,” said Kirk Ellison, EPRI program/area manager, Water and Land Management. “Any water that you’re taking out of a river or the groundwater and using for power generation, whether most of that water is being returned or some is being consumed, creates a potential impact to the water-energy nexus and other potential uses such as drinking water and & agriculture as well as emerging users such as low carbon fuels, carbon capture, and data centers.”
Ellison noted that the dependence of electricity generation on water often gets overlooked in today’s conversations regarding rapidly growing demand. For example, he cited Google’s July 2024 report that its carbon emissions have risen 48% since 2019 due mainly to rapid AI-related data center expansion.
“Every time I hear a story like that, I know there’s a side story that is often overlooked,” he said. “If power use goes up, water use goes up, but that’s not often talked about.”
Exploring Options
As the electric power industry moves forward with decarbonization efforts—especially with promising new technologies—it’s important that electric power utilities don’t overlook possible unintended consequences. Also, broader connections across industries will help ensure best practices are adopted for addressing water resource concerns. EPRI’s Technology Review, “Water Considerations for the Energy Transformation,” provides an overview of the complexities this transition is raising and serves as a key reference for electric power utilities.
The third annual Water-Energy Transformation Forum is one of the ways EPRI is helping to facilitate discussions to enable utilities to lead the energy transition while maintaining environmental stewardship. “The point of the forum is to raise awareness – and this year’s forum is more externally facing,” said Ellison, one of the event’s organizers. “It’s really EPRI trying to lead the conversation in this space, to say the electric power utilities need to be thinking about some of the water and environmental parts of these decarbonization pathways, as well. Research can help address some of these gaps.”
Like last year’s forum, this year’s gathering in Atlanta will be held in collaboration with a local utility – in this case, Georgia Power – located in a region that has faced its own water issues amid growing energy demand and a changing climate. Organizers hope to attract representatives from local industrial companies to speak to the many demands being placed on limited water supplies.
“It’s trying to drive the issue through a broader venue and context,” Ellison said, noting the importance of looking beyond needs related to electricity generation. “The power industry is not the only industry talking about needing more water. The landscape of the water-energy nexus is changing. At the end of the day, this positions EPRI to have a seat at the table, drive collaboration, and lead research on these issues going forward.”
EPRI Technical Expert:
Kirk Ellison
For more information, contact techexpert@eprijournal.com.
