The WateReuse Association has just published a report on the Water-Energy Simulator (WESim), an easy-to-use analytical tool that allows users to evaluate the energy and greenhouse-gas (GHG) implications of water management decisions.
Implications of Future Water Supply Sources for Energy Demands (08-16-1, 2012) has been compiled by Heather Cooley of the Pacific Institute and Robert Wilkinson from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The WESim tool is suitable for individual water utilities and groups of water utilities, as well as policy and decision-makers. The report provides background information on the model, including its basic form and structure, with a detailed user guide for WESim included as a companion to the report.
WESim provides a common framework for users to explore alternative scenarios. For example, users can compare the energy and greenhouse gas implications of using recycled water versus seawater desalination.
Alternatively, users can explore the implications of installing ozone disinfection at a water treatment facility or biogas recovery at a wastewater treatment facility. A user might evaluate ways to offset energy use and GHG emissions by installing renewable energy generation or investing in water conservation and efficiency.
WESim is a Microsoft® Excel workbook with a number of macros to facilitate data entry, calculation and display of results. Information that is inputted is stored in a Microsoft Access database file.
The workbook is compatible with Excel 2000 and later versions on PC computers. Because it requires Microsoft Access, it will not work with an Apple Macintosh operating system, because there is no Mac version of Access.
