Water and Energy are two key requirements for all human activities. Water is essential for domestic use, agricultural production and industrial applications. Modern society, which is increasingly dependent upon distant and depleting sources of water, requires electrical energy for pumping and transportation. Competing demands lead to further struggle for the limited sources for supply. Electrical energy generation in most developing countries is far short of the actual demand. Disruption in energy supply also leads to disruption in water supply for irrigation, drinking and sanitation services.

There is a considerable potential for achieving more effective services in water and energy sectors through integrating efforts and providing inter-linked resource management systems. Existing policies in developing countries, for instance, do not, to any substantial degree, include the inter-linkages between water and energy. Some developing countries have policies that subsidize electricity for agriculture and food production, resulting in inefficient water use, over-exploitation of groundwater, environmental degradation and adverse economic consequences. Although the issues vary from one country to another, with differences in resource availability and use, the core of the problem is similar in most developing countries.

The Need for Co-Management of Energy & Water Around the World

The developing economies see water and energy as two separate sectors. The planning and implementation of projects are separately handled for both the sectors. Developing countries need integrated management of electricity supplies for various uses of water in municipal, domestic, agricultural, and industrial applications.

New initiatives are being taken in many developing countries to manage the demand and supplies of energy for supplying water for municipal, industrial and domestic uses. These initiatives often ignore agriculture sector in terms of energy management for water pumping. Although good examples of efficient management of water resources and successful energy sector reforms can be found around the world, co-management of energy and water has not been adequately addressed so far.

IIEC Services

• Integrated planning for water resources management by determining the water balance and preparing the water budgets to support the existing/suggested cropping patterns for economising the use of water and the required energy to pump those quantities of water.
• Assessment of biomass, especially the crop residue wastes and designing the ownership model (supply side) through Energy Service Companies and utilities for installation, operation and maintenance of biomass based small power production plants.
• Revenue model for electricity generation and distribution at the distribution system level.
• Revenue model and tariff structure for distribution and use of water.
• Generation of livelihood resources for local communities from trading of biomass, e.g., crop residue wastes and other biomass can be sold to utilities for income generation.
• Agriculture demand side management through community options such as group metering or distributed generation.
• Designing an institutional framework, with all stakeholders, for delivery mechanisms.
  

Recent IIEC Experience

• Water-Energy-Biomass (WEB) Co-Management Project