Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The average energy consumption amounts to about 7,000 million kWh/a, which
equals the overall energy demand of the Mexican city Puebla (1.5 million inhabi-
tants) or 3.5 million already mentioned German single household equivalents. Fur-
ther Tortajada estimates that about 20% of the national electricity production is
used for the water supply and waste water disposal of the Mexico City Metropoli-
tan Area. Due to high water losses caused by leakages in the network - estimates
go up to 40% - the water supply system can be described as very inefficient in
terms of energy use (Tortajada 2006). If water losses would be reduced by only
one percent, another 160,000 customers could be supplied while using the same
amount of water and energy.
4.3.3 California State Water Project (SWP)
The California State Water Project (SWP) is another example of an energy intense
long-distance water supply system. To supply approximately 60 million customers
in Southern California, water is transported from the San Francisco Bay-Delta in a
system which consists of ≈1,000 km open canals and pipelines. Although the sys-
tem uses measures, such as energy recovery, the net energy consumption of the
transport system amounts to approximately 5,100 GWh/a, which equates to 2-3%
of the state electricity consumption (Cohen et al. 2004).
4.4 Innovative Energy Concepts in the Water Supply
Sector
There are several possibilities to save energy in water supply systems. Within the
following section two examples of projects of the Institute for Water and River
Basin Management (IWG), Water Supply Network Section of the University of
Karlsruhe that make use of several energy saving strategies, will be described.
4.4.1 Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)
in Gunung Kidul
The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) project in Gunung Kidul
(Java/ Indonesia) is a research project financed by the German Federal Ministry
for Education and Research (BMBF) and executed by the Forschungszentrum
Karlsruhe. Several universities as well as industry partners are participating within
the framework of this project. Motivation for the project is the water shortage of
the Indonesian region Gunung Kidul. Although rainfalls are high (about 2,000
mm/year), water leaves the area fast via the perforated karst underground. This
leads to a lack of drinking water, especially during the dry periods of the year.
Within the framework of a previous project (Water Resources Management of an
underground River in a Karst Area) the development and implementation of a re-
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