IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v238y2019icp413-422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Water scarcity risks mitigated or aggravated by the inter-regional electricity transmission across China

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Chunyan
  • Wang, Ranran
  • Hertwich, Edgar
  • Liu, Yi
  • Tong, Fan

Abstract

Traditionally, around 34–38% of China’s population resides in places experiencing high water scarcity for at least one month a year. However, the risk of water scarcity may be further exacerbated by inter-regional electricity transmission, due to the mismatch between the electricity-receiving population living in water-abundant areas and the water scarcity experienced in the electricity-exporting region. Using detailed thermal/hydro- power plants data and water scarcity index at the water basin scale, this study systematically quantified this additional water scarcity risk across China. The affected population, i.e. those living in basins under lower water scarcity but needing electricity generated in basins with higher water scarcity, was estimated to be 134 million, or 10% of the total population in China. Among this, over 60 million people were considered as highly-affected population (i.e. people who live in no/low stress basins rely on electricity generated in severe/extreme scarcity basins), the majority of whom lived in Southern China. This leads to a 12% increase in water-stressed population if the proposed transmission projects were implemented. On the other hand, more people, i.e., 285 million, would benefit from the inter-regional electricity transmissions. They relied on the electricity generated from basins under lower water scarcity. It is found that intra-grid’s thermal electricity transmission was less effective in mitigating the water scarcity than the hydroelectricity. It determined that the southern part of China faced worse environmental performance in coordinating its water endowment with the electricity generation because of its use of electricity from water stressed basins rather than from the water sufficient basins.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Chunyan & Wang, Ranran & Hertwich, Edgar & Liu, Yi & Tong, Fan, 2019. "Water scarcity risks mitigated or aggravated by the inter-regional electricity transmission across China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 413-422.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:238:y:2019:i:c:p:413-422
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.120
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261919301138
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.120?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pang, Mingyue & Zhang, Lixiao & Ulgiati, Sergio & Wang, Changbo, 2015. "Ecological impacts of small hydropower in China: Insights from an emergy analysis of a case plant," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 112-122.
    2. Feng, Kuishuang & Hubacek, Klaus & Siu, Yim Ling & Li, Xin, 2014. "The energy and water nexus in Chinese electricity production: A hybrid life cycle analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 342-355.
    3. Li, Xin & Chalvatzis, Konstantinos J. & Pappas, Dimitrios, 2018. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from power generation in China’s provinces in 2020," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 223(C), pages 93-102.
    4. Xu, Shaofeng & Chen, Wenying, 2006. "The reform of electricity power sector in the PR of China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(16), pages 2455-2465, November.
    5. Shang, Yizi & Hei, Pengfei & Lu, Shibao & Shang, Ling & Li, Xiaofei & Wei, Yongping & Jia, Dongdong & Jiang, Dong & Ye, Yuntao & Gong, Jiaguo & Lei, Xiaohui & Hao, Mengmeng & Qiu, Yaqin & Liu, Jiahong, 2018. "China’s energy-water nexus: Assessing water conservation synergies of the total coal consumption cap strategy until 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 643-660.
    6. Sun, Shengpeng & Liu, Fengliang & Xue, Song & Zeng, Ming & Zeng, Fanxiao, 2015. "Review on wind power development in China: Current situation and improvement strategies to realize future development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 589-599.
    7. Zheng, Xinzhu & Wang, Can & Cai, Wenjia & Kummu, Matti & Varis, Olli, 2016. "The vulnerability of thermoelectric power generation to water scarcity in China: Current status and future scenarios for power planning and climate change," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 444-455.
    8. Zhang, Chao & Anadon, Laura Diaz, 2014. "A multi-regional input–output analysis of domestic virtual water trade and provincial water footprint in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 159-172.
    9. Scherer, Laura & Pfister, Stephan, 2016. "Global water footprint assessment of hydropower," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 711-720.
    10. Lee, Uisung & Han, Jeongwoo & Elgowainy, Amgad & Wang, Michael, 2018. "Regional water consumption for hydro and thermal electricity generation in the United States," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 661-672.
    11. Zhu, Xiaojie & Guo, Ruipeng & Chen, Bin & Zhang, Jing & Hayat, Tasawar & Alsaedi, Ahmed, 2015. "Embodiment of virtual water of power generation in the electric power system in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 345-354.
    12. Hong, Jingke & Shen, Qiping & Xue, Fan, 2016. "A multi-regional structural path analysis of the energy supply chain in China's construction industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 56-68.
    13. Zhang, Chao & Zhong, Lijin & Liang, Sai & Sanders, Kelly T. & Wang, Jiao & Xu, Ming, 2017. "Virtual scarce water embodied in inter-provincial electricity transmission in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 438-448.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Haoran & Li, Ruixiong & Cai, Xingrui & Zheng, Chaoyue & Liu, Laibao & Liu, Maodian & Zhang, Qianru & Lin, Huiming & Chen, Long & Wang, Xuejun, 2022. "Do electricity flows hamper regional economic–environmental equity?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 326(C).
    2. Jia, Chenhui & Yan, Ping & Liu, Pei & Li, Zheng, 2021. "Energy industrial water withdrawal under different energy development scenarios: A multi-regional approach and a case study of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    3. Wenbo Li & Ruyin Long & Linling Zhang & Zhengxia He & Feiyu Chen & Hong Chen, 2020. "Greenhouse Gas Emission Transfer of Inter-Provincial Electricity Trade in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-14, November.
    4. Zhu, Yongnan & Ke, Jing & Wang, Jianhua & Liu, He & Jiang, Shan & Blum, Helcio & Zhao, Yong & He, Guohua & Meng, Yuan & Su, Jian, 2020. "Water transfer and losses embodied in the West–East electricity transmission project in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    5. Salas-Zapata, Walter & Hoyos-Medina, Lorena & Mejía-Durango, Diana, 2023. "Urban residential water and electricity consumption behavior: A systematic literature review," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    6. Wang, Xue-Chao & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Wang, Yutao & Dong, Xiaobin & Wei, Hejie & Xu, Zihan & Varbanov, Petar Sabev, 2020. "Water-Energy-Carbon Emissions nexus analysis of China: An environmental input-output model-based approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 261(C).
    7. Abulibdeh, Ammar, 2021. "Spatiotemporal analysis of water-electricity consumption in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic across six socioeconomic sectors in Doha City, Qatar," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    8. Yizhong Chen & Hongwei Lu & Jing Li & Pengdong Yan & He Peng, 2021. "Multi-Level Decision-Making for Inter-Regional Water Resources Management with Water Footprint Analysis and Shared Socioeconomic Pathways," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 35(2), pages 481-503, January.
    9. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2021. "The energy-water nexus of China’s interprovincial and seasonal electric power transmission," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    10. Chini, Christopher M. & Stillwell, Ashlynn S., 2020. "The changing virtual water trade network of the European electric grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 260(C).
    11. Zhao, Yuhuan & Shi, Qiaoling & li, Hao & Qian, Zhiling & Zheng, Lu & Wang, Song & He, Yizhang, 2022. "Simulating the economic and environmental effects of integrated policies in energy-carbon-water nexus of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PA).
    12. Wang, Xue-Chao & Klemeš, Jiří Jaromír & Ouyang, Xiao & Xu, Zihan & Fan, Weiguo & Wei, Hejie & Song, Weize, 2021. "Regional embodied Water-Energy-Carbon efficiency of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 224(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liu, Yitong & Chen, Bin & Wei, Wendong & Shao, Ling & Li, Zhi & Jiang, Weizhong & Chen, Guoqian, 2020. "Global water use associated with energy supply, demand and international trade of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    2. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2021. "The energy-water nexus of China’s interprovincial and seasonal electric power transmission," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 286(C).
    3. Li, Mingquan & Dai, Hancheng & Xie, Yang & Tao, Ye & Bregnbaek, Lars & Sandholt, Kaare, 2017. "Water conservation from power generation in China: A provincial level scenario towards 2030," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 580-591.
    4. Li, Junjie & Yan, Yulong & Wang, Yirong & Zhang, Yifu & Shao, Lianwei & Li, Menggang, 2024. "Spatial-successive transfer of virtual scarcity water along China's coal-based electric chain," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    5. Zhang, Yiyi & Fang, Jiake & Wang, Saige & Yao, Huilu, 2020. "Energy-water nexus in electricity trade network: A case study of interprovincial electricity trade in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    6. Zhou, Yuanchun & Ma, Mengdie & Gao, Peiqi & Xu, Qiming & Bi, Jun & Naren, Tuya, 2019. "Managing water resources from the energy - water nexus perspective under a changing climate: A case study of Jiangsu province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 380-390.
    7. Yiyi Zhang & Shengren Hou & Jiefeng Liu & Hanbo Zheng & Jiaqi Wang & Chaohai Zhang, 2020. "Evolution of Virtual Water Transfers in China’s Provincial Grids and Its Driving Analysis," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, January.
    8. Patro, Epari Ritesh & De Michele, Carlo & Avanzi, Francesco, 2018. "Future perspectives of run-of-the-river hydropower and the impact of glaciers’ shrinkage: The case of Italian Alps," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 699-713.
    9. Zhang, Yiyi & Hou, Shengren & Chen, Shaoqing & Long, Huihui & Liu, Jiefeng & Wang, Jiaqi, 2021. "Tracking flows and network dynamics of virtual water in electricity transmission across China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    10. Jin, Yi & Behrens, Paul & Tukker, Arnold & Scherer, Laura, 2019. "Water use of electricity technologies: A global meta-analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    11. Chai, Li & Liao, Xiawei & Yang, Liu & Yan, Xianglin, 2018. "Assessing life cycle water use and pollution of coal-fired power generation in China using input-output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 951-958.
    12. Feng, Cuiyang & Tang, Xu & Jin, Yi & Guo, Yuhua & Zhang, Xiaochuan, 2019. "Regional energy-water nexus based on structural path betweenness: A case study of Shanxi Province, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 102-112.
    13. Zhang, Yiyi & Wang, Jiaqi & Zhang, Linmei & Liu, Jiefeng & Zheng, Hanbo & Fang, Jiake & Hou, Shengren & Chen, Shaoqing, 2020. "Optimization of China’s electric power sector targeting water stress and carbon emissions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    14. Yan, Xia & Jie, Wu & Minjun, Shi & Shouyang, Wang & Zhuoying, Zhang, 2022. "China's regional imbalance in electricity demand, power and water pricing - From the perspective of electricity-related virtual water transmission," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).
    15. Gonzalez Sanchez, Rocio & Seliger, Roman & Fahl, Fernando & De Felice, Luca & Ouarda, Taha B.M.J. & Farinosi, Fabio, 2020. "Freshwater use of the energy sector in Africa," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    16. Yuqi Su & Yi Liang & Li Chai & Zixuan Han & Sai Ma & Jiaxuan Lyu & Zhiping Li & Liu Yang, 2019. "Water Degradation by China’s Fossil Fuels Production: A Life Cycle Assessment Based on an Input–Output Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-12, July.
    17. Krarti, Moncef & Aldubyan, Mohammad, 2021. "Mitigation analysis of water consumption for power generation and air conditioning of residential buildings: Case study of Saudi Arabia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    18. Wang, Can & Zheng, Xinzhu & Cai, Wenjia & Gao, Xue & Berrill, Peter, 2017. "Unexpected water impacts of energy-saving measures in the iron and steel sector: Tradeoffs or synergies?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1119-1127.
    19. Xie, Xiaomin & Jiang, Xiaoyun & Zhang, Tingting & Huang, Zhen, 2019. "Regional water footprints assessment for hydroelectricity generation in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 316-325.
    20. Sun, Xudong & Li, Jiashuo & Qiao, Han & Zhang, Bo, 2017. "Energy implications of China's regional development: New insights from multi-regional input-output analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 118-131.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:238:y:2019:i:c:p:413-422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.