Impact of Thermoelectric Power Plant Operations and Water Use Reporting Methods on Thermoelectric Power Plant Water Use.

ABSTRACT: Thermoelectric power generation accounts for over 41% of total U.S. freshwater withdrawals, making understanding the determinants of power plants' water withdrawals (WW) and consumption (WC) critical for reducing the sector's reliance on increasingly scarce water resources. However, reported data inconsistencies and incomplete analysis of potential determinants of thermoelectric water use hinder such understanding. We address these challenges by introducing a novel data filtering method and a more complete assessment of water use determinants. First, we applied a power-cooling ratio as an operations-based data filter that removed operationally implausible records while retaining more original data, outperforming previous statistical filtering methods. Second, we found that different water

SUBMITTER: Sjostedt E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11912314 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature