Improvement of the Water-Energy Nexus and the Environmental Performance of Water Supply Systems using Smart ICT Solutions

Abstract

In the last years, there has been a great interest in the complex interactions between energy and water, known as the Water-Energy Nexus.1 Free and unrestricted availability and access to energy and water enables the growth of an economy and supports the quality of life. The Water-Energy Nexus is considered as one of the most important multidisciplinary challenges2 that the water market globally growing has to face in the forthcoming years. Currently, many water systems are not managed in terms of long term sustainability. Water Utilities (WU) are faced to further challenges, such as aging of their infrastructure and poor cost-recovery, leading to a lack of finance for operation and maintenance (O&M). Energy is required in all stages of water production and distribution, from abstraction over treatment to transportation. Energy costs are a top-of-mind concern for WU, regardless of the geography, size and level of water network efficiency.3 On the other hand, in developing countries WU are having a hard time to either improve their services or expand their network to unserved neighbourhoods. Regarding all this facts, and considering an economic and competitive scenario which forces to respond to pressures from various fields (market, technology, society...), lead to the need to implement new methods and processes that can meet these growing demands and to try to manage responses and actions in real time. Intelligent software solutions can be applied to networks, whether they have either smart metering and large amounts of data or less recorded data. They enhance the operators’ knowledge of this data, turn it into useful information for decision-making related to the operation, maintenance and the design of the water supply network. In this paper, an application of an intelligent software solution is presented. WatEner, a smart Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solution that combines the key factors of energy consumption with further operational requirements of drinking water supply to improve the management of water supply networks, has been tested with good results by the WU of the city of Karlsruhe, a water rich area in North-West - Europe where the main objective was to save energy in the drinking water distribution. As a conclusion, a non-structural solution for the water-energy nexus can have a great impact on several matters (e.g. climate change, carbon footprint, WUs balance sheets, water losses) with reasonable investment in only a few sensors in the water supply network.