The Energy Footprint Of Drinking Water

By Jordan Schmidt

Drinking water and wastewater systems are generally the largest energy consumers for municipal governments. However, there is little published information available on the exact energy usage for specific systems. A recent article in Journal – American Water Works Association, looked to address this knowledge gap for drinking water utilities. The authors surveyed drinking water utilities across the United States of America. Utilities were asked for three years of annual production/delivery volumes and annual total energy usage, as well as general plant information. Data was received from 109 utilities well distributed across the USA.