Interprovincial Water Transfer in Electricity Transmission System from 2005 to 2014

Abstract

Since the electricity is not generated and consumed in the same region, the requirements of electricity transmission are increasing which drive inter-provincial virtual water transmission in China. The spatial distribution imbalance of water resources and large volumes of energy resources might aggravate the water scarcity in water shortage regions. It is vital to have a better understanding of the interprovincial virtual water flows coupled with electricity flows, which could provide insights into water resource reallocation through electricity system. Here, we combined interprovincial electricity transmission data with water intensity of different electricity types to analyze the interprovincial electricity-related water transfer during the period of 2005 and 2014. According to the electricity mix of each province and water intensity of each generation type, the synthetical water intensity was obtained. Eventually, inter-provincial virtual water trade model was built by combining provincial synthetical water intensity with electricity flow data, the inter-provincial virtual water transmission matrix from 2005 to 2014 was analyzed to investigate the evolvement of virtual water network related to electricity transmission. The main results showed that the number of provincial water transfers have increased from 449.75Mm3 to 2559.71Mm3 for ten years. Besides, water transfers in several provinces are improving rapidly, and that of most provinces keep steady. By optimizing the deployment transmission of electricity to reallocate water resources of provinces might be a new perspective to stave off water scarcity in China.