Study shows how water systems can help accelerate renewable energy adoption

Stanford-led analysis reveals how water programs, from desalination vegetation to wastewater therapy services, might assist make renewable vitality extra inexpensive and reliable. The study, revealed Sept. 27 in Nature Waterpresents a framework to measure how water programs can regulate their vitality use to assist steadiness energy grid provide and demand.

“If we’re going to reach net zero, we need demand-side energy solutions, and water systems represent a largely untapped resource,” stated research lead writer Akshay Rao, an environmental engineering Ph.D. pupil within the Stanford Faculty of Engineering.

“Our method helps water operators and energy managers make better decisions about how to coordinate these infrastructure systems to simultaneously meet our decarbonization and water reliability goals.”

As grids rely extra on renewable energy sources like wind and photo voltaic, balancing vitality provide and demand turns into tougher. Usually, vitality storage applied sciences like batteries assist with this, however batteries are costly. An alternate is to advertise demand-side flexibility from large-load customers like water conveyance and therapy suppliers.

Water programs—which use as much as 5% of the nation’s electrical energy—might supply comparable advantages to batteries by adjusting their operations to align with real-time vitality wants, in line with Rao and his co-authors.

A framework for flexibility

To assist understand this potential, the researchers developed a framework that assesses the worth of vitality flexibility in water programs from the views of electrical energy grid operators and water system operators.

The framework compares these values to different grid-scale vitality storage options, corresponding to lithium-ion batteries that retailer electrical energy in periods of low vitality demand and launch it throughout peak demand intervals. The framework additionally takes into consideration a spread of things, corresponding to reliability dangers, compliance dangers, and capital improve prices related to delivering vitality flexibility utilizing crucial infrastructure programs.

Researchers examined their methodology on a seawater desalination plant, a water distribution system, and a wastewater treatment plant. In addition they explored the impact of various tariff constructions and electrical energy charges from utilities in California, Texas, Florida, and New York.

They discovered that these programs might shift as much as 30% of their vitality use throughout peak demand instances, resulting in important value financial savings and easing strain on the grid. Desalination vegetation confirmed the best potential for this sort of vitality flexibility by tweaking how a lot water they recuperate or shutting down particular operations when electrical energy costs are excessive.

The framework might assist electrical energy grid operators consider vitality flexibility assets throughout a spread of water programs, evaluate them with different vitality flexibility and vitality storage choices, and modify or worth vitality, in line with the researchers. The method might additionally assist water utility operators make extra knowledgeable monetary selections about how they design and run their vegetation in an period of quickly altering electrical energy grids.

The research additionally highlights how vital vitality pricing is for profiting from this flexibility. Water programs that pay completely different charges for vitality at completely different instances of the day might see the most important advantages. Services would possibly even be capable of make extra cash by lowering vitality use when the grid is confused, as a part of energy-saving applications provided by utilities.

“Our study gives water and energy managers a tool to make smarter choices,” stated Rao. “With the proper investments and insurance policies, water systems can play a key position in making the transition to renewable vitality smoother and extra inexpensive.”

Meagan Mauter, affiliate professor within the Photon Science Directorate at SLAC Nationwide Accelerator Laboratory, is senior writer of this paper. She can be a senior fellow on the Stanford Woods Institute for the Atmosphere and the Precourt Institute for Power, and an affiliate professor, by courtesy, of chemical engineering.