Abstract
Keeping in mind the short-term and long-term aims of cost depletion and sustainable development respectively, a joint water and energy management scheme for water supply systems that leads to reduced energy losses is proposed. For water utilities, drinkable water's treatment and pumping and wastewater treatment are the main energy-consuming processes and a proportional part of this energy is wasted with non-revenue water. In Romania, these losses can reach critical levels so highlighting them becomes a crucial aspect in assessing the system's efficiency. This paper presents a scheme that combines energy audit and water balance techniques that can become a tool for both energy auditors and managers, by allowing the quantification of embedded energy of water losses. The methodology is adapted for the conditions in Romania, where data collection and processing is mainly done manually.
Highlights
Energy production needs water and water supply needs energy
This paper presents a management/auditing scheme whose main aim is quantifying the energy lost with water losses in a water supply system
Quatification of the energy lost with water losses was done by Cabrera et al [9], Mamade et al [5], but they did not consider the energy used in the clear water treatment phase, it can be considered as a direct energy input in the water supply system
Summary
Energy production needs water and water supply needs energy. This statement, in its various forms, is encountered more and more often in the research and policy making communities as efforts converge towards a better understanding of the water-energy nexus and its practical implementation, considering the rapidly growing demand for both resources. Regarding the water side of the nexus, it is estimated that energy consumption for treatment and pumping of drinking and industrial water accounts for 2-3% of the world’s total energy consumption [2] or somewhere around 120 Mtoe (million tonnes of oil equivalent) [3]. From this energy, 60% represents electricity and it corresponds to 4% of total electricity consumption worldwide [3]. The second step focuses on the actual quantification of energy lost and its impact on the efficiency of the company based on energy auditing, water balance and life cycle assessment principles
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