Drinking water and wastewater utilities are in the business of making clean water, not using clean energy, and the ongoing energy transition is swiftly creating new challenges for which they are unprepared. At this critical juncture in the water-energy nexus, this Making Waves article explores how the research community can support water utilities during the transition as features like renewables, flexible loads, and dynamic markets become standard. Researchers can help water utilities implement existing energy management techniques not yet widely practiced, including establishing energy policies, managing energy data, using low-energy-intensity water sources, and participating in demand response programs. New research priorities are dynamic energy pricing, on-site renewable-energy micro-grids, and integrated water and energy demand forecasting. Water utilities have adapted to many technological and regulatory changes over the years, and with research support for new designs and operations, they will thrive in a clean-energy future.

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.