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Asymmetries and Gaps
Asymmetries
Policy makers and experts from public and private sectors need to be aware of and to understand that there are major asymmetries between energy and water in relation to economics, commercial issues, politics, governance, and data availability.
In most countries, energy is a major economic domain and a factor perceived by many as very important with great value and that represents a significant cost to people in the household, industrial, manufacturing, services, and agricultural sectors of the economy. As such, decision makers in both public and private organizations commit considerable resources of all kinds to attend the planning, availability and reliability of energy systems. It is also a factor that normally can be quantified and measured through time and space facilitating its control and accountability for commercial purposes.
Water, although an indispensable factor for life and for economic and social development, is in many places regarded as a public health and welfare issue. In fact, access to clean water and proper sanitation is considered a human right in which water resources are taking as a public good. Also, water resources are subject to great variabilities in time and space which are already intensifying due to climate change impacts. The worldwide variability in the water cycle makes it more difficult to measure and to assess water issues and to build comprehensive and disaggregated sets of data, statistics and indicators. In many cases, the management of water resources is mainly a responsibility of state, municipality and local organizations.
In general, prices of water and energy typically do not reflect the true scarcity, societal costs or economic value. Subsidies and political decisions could greatly affect the prices of energy and water altering the true economic link between water and energy. In a lot of countries, the price of water seldom reflects even its basic cost associated with storage, treatment and distribution and in many cases the price is indeed lower than the basic cost of supply.
Therefore, market forces tend to play a greater role in energy sector development than in issues related to water such as water resources management and water-related services. Consequently, in the past energy has attracted considerably more political attention than water in most countries reflecting this economic, commercial and social disparity. Only recently there is more global awareness of the importance of water given the eminent crisis happening in many countries due to lack of water resources and the already negative impacts on water resulting from climate change.
Policy makers need to be aware of these asymmetries to be able to develop effective and sustainable integrated water and energy solutions. The different political economies of water and energy should be recognized, as these differences affect the scope, speed and direction of change in each factor. Partly because of these issues, there is a considerable difference in the pace of change in the water and energy sectors. The incentives to increase efficiency facing the two factors are asymmetrical. In many cases, energy users have little incentive to conserve water due to its low cost, but water users normally do pay for energy, even though prices may be subsidized.
For more information, please see the following references:
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: United Nation’s World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), Volume 1 Water and Energy, Volume 2 Facing the Challenges, [The United Nations World Water Development Report], Paris, 2014
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: United Nations World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP), The United Nations World Water Development report: Leaving no one behind, Paris, 2019
Gaps
Data Issues
There are important gaps that need to be addressed in order to develop effective, sustainable and integrated water and energy solutions. One of the main gaps is related to the asymmetry on the availability of data on water and energy. In general, more disaggregated and accurate data is available for energy than for water. The worldwide variability in the water cycle makes it more difficult to measure and to assess water issues and to build comprehensive and disaggregated sets of data, statistics and indicators. The gap in data availability is critical in many developing countries and represents a limitation for the development of future scenarios and the use of integrated modelling systems in these countries.
Design and Development of Integrated Systems for the Poor
More effective efforts are necessary worldwide for the development of sustainable water and energy solutions specifically tailored to cover the needs of the poorest segments of the population which usually are the ones without access to basic energy, water and sanitation services. Even though many projects exist that seek to advance sustainable rural socio-economic development, many challenges persist. Challenges are related to funding, capacity development and the persistent focus on one of the two factors instead of both. Also, the success and sustainability of the projects are often affected by the lack of long-term capacity development programmes that need to be implemented at the community level.
Measuring Services from Integrated Water and Energy Systems
An important gap is related to the lack of methodological tools that allow measuring the economic, social and environmental value resulting from services provided by combined water-energy systems. Multi-purpose hydropower plants represent an example in which benefits in the three dimensions of sustainable development need to be properly measured in addition to measuring the cost and benefits of generating electricity. Additionally, innovative modelling mechanisms are necessary to assess the opportunity and risks related to the use of water as energy storage while considering all other potential water uses.
COVID-19 Issues
Currently, one of the main gaps or areas that need attention is the assessment of the potential impacts of the COVID-19 world crisis in the critical services of water and energy. There is little information about the consequences that an extended world health crisis could have on these services. Possible negative impacts are related to the potential unavailability of critical workforce necessary to run and maintain these utilities which need to operate 24 hours a day. The crisis points towards the need to enhance protections and benefits for energy and water industry workers who should be classified as “essential” staff to critical infrastructure and services. The proximity of working conditions in certain work areas such as control rooms could put entire facility workers at risk of uniform COVID-19 exposure. Refuelling and maintenance activities in facilities like power plants may need to be rescheduled or delayed to ensure short term availability of the services while increasing the risk of shutdown in the mid or long term. Additionally, the availability of inputs such as chemicals, fuels and materials could also compromise the reliability of these services. The availability of mineral supplies such as cobalt, nickel, cooper and rare earths supporting clean energy technologies for the future is also an issue that needs further review. More importantly, the strong interdependence between water and energy entails that the disruption in the supply of one of these critical inputs will eventually force the disruption of the other supply. These are issues of paramount importance for policymakers in relation to the generation of electricity and the treatment, distribution and management of water.
For more information, please see the following references:
International Energy Agency: “Clean energy progress after the COVID-19 crisis will need reliable supplies of critical minerals.” Paris, 6 May 2020