Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China

Chao Zhang, Lijin Zhong, Sai Liang, Kelly T. Sanders, Jiao Wang and Ming Xu

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 187, issue C, 438-448

Abstract: Intra-national electricity transmission drives virtual water transfer from electricity production regions to electricity consumption regions. In China, the water-intensive thermoelectric power industry is expanding quickly in many water-scarce energy production hubs in northern and northwestern provinces. This study constructed a node-flow model of inter-provincial electricity transmission to investigate the virtual water and scarcity-adjusted virtual water (or virtual scarce water) embodied in the electricity transmission network. It is revealed that total inter-provincial virtual water transfer embodied in electricity transmission was 623millionm3 in 2011, equivalent to 12.7% of the national total thermoelectric water consumption. The top three largest single virtual water flows are West Inner Mongolia-to-Beijing (44millionm3), East Inner Mongolia-to-Liaoning (39millionm3), and Guizhou-to-Guangdong (37millionm3). If the actual volumes of consumptive water use are translated into scarcity-adjusted water consumption based on Water Stress Index, West Inner Mongolia (81millionm3), Shanxi (63millionm3) and Ningxia (30millionm3) become the top three exporters of virtual scarce water. Many ongoing long-distance electricity transmission projects in China will enlarge the scale of scarce water outflows from northwestern regions and potentially increase their water stress.

Keywords: Electricity transmission; Virtual water; Scarce water; Energy-water nexus; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (35)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:187:y:2017:i:c:p:438-448

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.11.052

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