#29 Water Distribution
#29 Water Distribution
A big source of water and energy waste
Read time: 4 minutes
In this week’s issue you will learn about the issues facing our water networks and how important it is to fix them: Water Distribution
“8.6 trillion gallons of water are lost each year through leaks“ - The World Bank
Top Water Distribution News 🗞️
Insights: All the info you need about the current smart water networks ecosystem (key countries, manufacturers, market size, etc.).
Massive Jordan project: 1.6 million people in Jordan will benefit from this new project to tackle Jordan’s water crisis and build climate resilience.
Water project awards: A list of the winners of the 2023 Global Water Awards.
Let’s dive in 🧠
Luckily for most of us today getting water is as simple as opening the tap. But the truth is that there is a huge complex process of water distribution behind this.
Water networks have 2 main issues we need to fix:
Energy
Leaks
Energy
Pumping water from source to treatment plants to storage and distribution requires huge amounts of energy.
So much that the treatment and transport of water consumes close to 4% of the world’s energy and its carbon emissions are close to those of the aviation industry.
Unless water comes from reserves at higher altitudes, in most places the water system relies on pumps. All that pumping of water is what demands so much energy, and what drives up the price of water.
In fact, electricity is the major cost driver of processing and distributing water.
Leaks
In the United States, an estimated 1/6 of distributed water escapes the system. That number is even higher in low income countries, where it can reach over 80%!
This is due to poor quality or aging infrastructure as well as water pressure management issues.
If you have bad quality pipes, pumps, screws, etc. of course water is going to escape. Getting a replacement is neither financially tenable nor necessary except in extreme cases or when public health is at risk.
Pressure is also key. If there is too little, water doesn’t get to where it needs go, and if there’s too much, pipes can explode.
All of this water waste takes us to a key concept: “non-revenue water” (NRW)
Non-revenue water
This refers to the gallons of water lost during distribution. It is the difference between what comes into the system and what eventually comes out of the tap.
Simply from its name you can guess how important water waste is for utility companies and municipalities.
10% NRW levels are considered well within the bounds of good water management but the problem is that the global average is around 20%!
Leaks are the #1 cause of NRW but there’s also meter and paperwork problems.
Fixing non-revenue water will help us save trillions of gallons of water but it will also help us save huge amounts of energy from pumping all that water that ends up leaking.
Solutions
Infrastructure: We have to invest in fixing the infrastructure we already have.
Energy recycling: We are already using so much energy to move water around, so instead of wasting it let’s recover as much of it as we can! What we are doing with hydropower but at a “pipe-scale”. A startup mentioned below is doing just that!
Data: We have to create “smart/intelligent water networks”. By having more sensors all around water networks we’ll be able to optimize pressure levels and locate leaks in near-real-time. This way we’ll optimize electricity use and water flow.
Fixing our water systems will help us:
Save trillions of gallons of water and hundreds of billions of dollars.
Become more resilient to increasingly frequent water shortages.
Reduce CO2 emissions.
So why haven’t we fixed them all already?
Challenges
Reputation: In many cases municipal governments or utility companies prefer not to acknowledge leakage problems because that also means acknowledging management problems.
Capacity and incentives: It is common that utilities fail to tackle the issue of water loss because they lack enough technical or institutional capacity and incentives/requirements to act.
Water is very cheap: Most water systems can’t afford to invest in upgrading distribution systems due to a lack of revenue. In some cases, operating costs exceed water revenues, particularly in times of drought that lead to greater conservation and reduced revenue.
Top Water Distribution Companies 💰
iO2 🇬🇧: They create intelligent water networks. Their solutions instrument, analyse and control water networks to reduce leakage, reduce energy consumption and improve supply.
Water Management Solutions 🇬🇧: Their leakage management system provides automatic leakage calculation and real-time alarming for early warning.
InPipe Energy 🇺🇸: With their in-pipe turbines they are able to harness the flow of water through existing pipes to efficiently generate power and turn it into usable electricity.
Besides these companies, we also have all the large utilities which are investing heavily in leak detection and smart metering.
❗Extreme knowledge area❗
Non-revenue water in detail: A closer look at how NRW works, it’s main causes and possible solutions.
In-pipe water turbines: A great video to understand how in-pipe water turbines work and their potential to produce electricity at scale.
That’s it for today, 1 climate tech topic in under 5 minutes.
Next week… Energy storage! 🤯
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