Water withdrawal and consumption estimates for thermoelectric power plants in the United States, 2015 (ver. 1.2, July 2024)

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed models to estimate plant-level thermoelectric water use based on linked heat-and-water budgets to provide a consistent method for water-use estimation across the fleet of U.S. thermoelectric plants. In addition to calculating a thermodynamic “best” estimate for each powerplant, the models also calculate plausible ranges of minimum and maximum withdrawal and consumption. Historically, there have been two federal sources for thermoelectric water use information. The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) publishes annual thermoelectric water withdrawal and consumption data based on plant operator-reported surveys. The USGS has published water-use reports every 5 years that include county-level thermoelectric withdrawal and consumption estimates based on data from State water agencies, plant operators, and the EIA. The USGS thermoelectric water-use models provide independent estimates from these plant operator-reported data and, unlike the reported data, the model estimates are derived from a consistent method. This dataset presents water withdrawal and consumption estimates along with associated information for 1,122 water-using, utility-scale thermoelectric power plants in the United States for 2015. The total estimated withdrawal for all thermoelectric plants in the U.S. in 2015 was about 96 billion gallons per day (Bgal/d), and total estimated consumption was about 3 Bgal/d. This data release supports the findings published in Harris and Diehl (2019).

美国地质调查局（U.S. Geological Survey, USGS）开发了基于耦合热-水收支的电厂级火电用水估算模型，旨在为全美火电电厂群体提供统一的用水估算方法。除了为每座火力发电厂计算热力学意义上的“最优”估算值外，该模型还可推算取水量与耗水量的最小、最大合理区间。长期以来，美国火电用水信息主要有两个联邦数据来源：美国能源部下属的能源信息署（Energy Information Administration, EIA）会基于电厂运营商上报的调研数据，发布年度火电取水量与耗水量统计数据；美国地质调查局（USGS）每5年发布一次用水报告，其中包含基于各州水利机构、电厂运营商及能源信息署数据的县级火电取水量与耗水量估算结果。美国地质调查局的火电用水模型可生成独立于电厂运营商上报数据的估算结果；与上报数据不同，该模型的估算值采用统一方法推导得出。本数据集涵盖了2015年全美1122座具备用水能力的公用事业级火力发电厂的取水量、耗水量估算结果及相关配套信息。2015年全美火电电厂总估算取水量约为960亿加仑/日（Bgal/d），总估算耗水量约为30亿加仑/日（Bgal/d）。本次数据发布支撑了Harris与Diehl（2019）发表的研究结论。