Statistical Model and Benchmarking Procedure for Energy Use by US Public Water Systems

Abstract

Modern public water systems require energy to provide reliable high-quality water, and two particular data problems exist. The first is the quantification of their energy requirements, for which literature is sparse and primary data collection is difficult. The second is the equitable comparison of energy use among systems that differ in size, water supply, and geographic setting. Using a recent survey of US water systems’ energy requirements, this study presents a statistical model that can estimate water system energy use as a function of a few accessible system-specific and geographic variables. The model offers improvements in accuracy and ease of use over previous ones. It advances the solution of the two problems by offering reasonable estimation of water system energy use in the absence of actual observations and by considering characteristics that explain much of the variation in energy use, enabling better energy benchmarking and fairer comparisons among diverse systems.