Model: Thermoelectric Power Water-Use Model

Model ID: wu-thermoelectric

On This Page:

• Identification Information
• Entity and Attribute Information
• Explore Further - Analyses and Findings

Identification Information:

Citation:

Citation Information:

Originator:U.S. Geological Survey

Publication Date:2025

Title:USGS National Water Availability Assessment Data Companion website

Geospatial Data Presentation Form:Digital datasets

Online Linkage:https://water.usgs.gov/nwaa-data/data-file-directory?path=data/water-use/wu-thermoelectric/

Larger Work Citation(s):

Citation Information:

Originator:Galanter, A.E., Gorman Sanisaca, L.E., Skinner, K.D., Harris, M.A., Diehl, T.H., Lombard, M.A., Chamberlin, C.A., McCarthy, B.A., Halper, A.S., Niswonger, R.G., Stewart, J.S., Markstrom, S.L., Embry, I., Worland, S., and Valseth, K.J.

Publication Date:2023-10-31

Title:Thermoelectric-power water use reanalysis for the 2008-2020 period by power plant, month, and year for the conterminous United States

Geospatial Data Presentation Form:Digital datasets

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.5066/P9ZE2FVM

Publisher:U.S. Geological Survey – ScienceBase

Citation Information:

Originator:Gorman Sanisaca, L.E., Galanter, A.E., Skinner, K.D., Harris, M.A., Diehl, T.H., Halper, A.S., Mohs, T.G., Roland, V.L., Stewart, J.S., and Niswonger, R.

Publication Date:2023-10-31

Title:Thermoelectric-power condenser duty estimates by month and cooling type for use to calculate water use by power plant for the 2008-2020 reanalysis period for the conterminous United States

Geospatial Data Presentation Form:Digital datasets

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.5066/P9XG876W

Publisher:U.S. Geological Survey – ScienceBase

Citation Information:

Originator:Harris, M.A., Diehl, T.H., Gorman Sanisaca, L. E., Galanter, A.E., Lombard, M.A., Skinner, K.D., Chamberlin, C., McCarthy, B.A., Niswonger, R., Stewart, J.S., & Valseth, K.J.

Publication Date:2025-02

Title:Automating physics-based models to estimate thermoelectric-power water use

Geospatial Data Presentation Form:Digital datasets

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106265

Publisher:Environmental Modelling & Software

Description:

Name:Thermoelectric Power Water-Use Model

Model ID:wu-thermoelectric

Summary:

This model computes the amount of water withdrawn and consumed by thermoelectric power plants each month over the period from 2008 to 2020 for all subwatersheds (12-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes or HUC12s) in the conterminous United States (CONUS).

Thermoelectric power plants withdraw more water than any other sector of water use in the United States and consume water at rates that can be significant especially in water-stressed regions. Water is primarily used for cooling purposes and is withdrawn from a source, routed through a plant’s condenser to cool the steam used to generate electricity, and consumed in a cooling system via evaporation. In this model, the amount of water that is withdrawn and consumed by thermoelectric power plants is computed based on linked heat-and-water budgets, accounting for power plant generation and cooling system technologies, the quantity of fuels consumed and electricity generated, and environmental factors such as air temperatures, water temperatures, wind speed, and elevation.

Technical Description:

A national, physics-based thermoelectric water use model was developed to estimate monthly thermoelectric power plant water withdrawals and consumptive use. The model is based on linked heat-and-water budgets constrained by the following data: power plant generation and cooling system technologies, the quantity of fuels consumed, the amount of electricity generated, and environmental variables.

Thermoelectric power plant characteristic and operational data were sourced from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) via survey forms EIA-860 and EIA-923, respectively. Plant characteristic data are comprised of boiler, generator, and cooling-system technologies information. Plant operational data include fuel type and fuel consumption, electricity generation, and cooling-system operations.

The heat-budget component of the model calculates the amount of waste heat (fuel heat that is not converted to electricity) that is removed from the steam used to drive the turbines that generate electricity. The waste heat is transferred to the cooling system in a thermoelectric power plant's condenser, which is defined as the condenser duty. The water-budget component of the model calculates the amount of water that is withdrawn and consumed (via evaporation) based on plant-specific condenser duty, and environmental variables (air temperatures, water temperatures, wind speed, and elevation). Simulated water temperatures for plant intakes were provided by the USGS National Hydrologic Model and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis and Sea Surface Temperatures. Air temperatures and wind speeds were obtained from GridMET. After calculations of water withdrawals and consumption were completed for each individual thermoelectric power plant, the values for all power plants within a given HUC12 were then summed to provide the withdrawals and consumption at a HUC12 spatial scale.

See Harris et al. (2025) in the citation list to learn more about the technical details and find references to all component datasets and models.

Understanding the units (millions of gallons per day)

Monthly mean thermoelectric values were derived as predicted total monthly values (in millions of gallons), divided by the number of days in the month, with resulting units of millions of gallons per day. Annual mean values were derived by multiplying monthly mean values by the respective number of days in the month, summing those over the 12 months in each year, and then dividing by the number of days in each year, with resulting units of millions of gallons per day. Leap years were accounted for in these calculations.

Variables:

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh groundwater consumptive use

Variable ID:tecufgw

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh surface-water consumptive use

Variable ID:tecufsw

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh water total consumptive use

Variable ID:tecuftot

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh groundwater withdrawals

Variable ID:tewdfgw

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh surface-water withdrawals

Variable ID:tewdfsw

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric fresh water total withdrawals

Variable ID:tewdftot

Variable:

Name:Thermoelectric saline surface-water withdrawals

Variable ID:tewdssw

Time Period of Content:

Time Period Information:

Range of Dates/Times:

Start Year/Month:200801

End Year/Month:202012

Status:

Scenario:Historical

Spatial Domain:

Description of Geographic Extent:Lower 48 United States

Bounding Coordinates:

West Bounding Coordinate:-126.0

East Bounding Coordinate:-66.2

North Bounding Coordinate:49.7

South Bounding Coordinate:24.4

Geospatial Data Needed to Map Output:

Description of Spatial Resolution:12-digit hydrologic unit codes

Citation Information:

Title:October 2020 version of the Watershed Boundary Dataset

Online Linkage:https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/67082a0fd34e969edc5a1cca

Entity and Attribute Information:

Detailed Description:

Entity Type:

Entity Type Label:combined_wu-thermoelectric_historical_CONUS_200801-202012_long.csv

Entity Type Definition:

Comma Separated Value (CSV) file containing data for each of this model's variables for the 2008-2020 period by 12-digit hydrologic unit code (HUC12), month, and year for the Lower 48 United States. The first row is a header row and the data start on the second row. The first column is the HUC12 identifier (huc12_id) and the second column is the year and month (year_month). All following columns represent a variable, named by the variable ID followed by the units (e.g., tecufgw_mgd).

Entity Type Definition Source:Producer defined

Explore Further - Analyses and Findings:

National Water Availability Assessment Report Chapter(s):

Chapter:

Title:Chapter A: Executive Summary

Description:

Chapter A introduces the National Water Availability Assessment and provides important background and definitions for how the report characterizes water availability and its components. This chapter also presents the key findings of Chapters B-F and thus acts as a summary of the entire report. The sidebars presented in Chapter A provide context for the datasets and citations that are used throughout the report.

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1894A

Chapter:

Title:Chapter D: National Water Use

Description:

Chapter D (Medalie and others, 2025) assesses water use, including withdrawals and consumptive use in the conterminous United States (lower 48 states; CONUS). This chapter presents information on where, when, how much, and for what purpose surface and ground water are used in CONUS. This chapter focuses on analysis of the three types of water use that account for approximately 90% of water withdrawals in CONUS –public supply, crop irrigation, and thermoelectric power – but also includes information on other water use categories.

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1894D

Chapter:

Title:Chapter F: Integrated Water availability

Description:

The National Water Availability Assessment Report culminates with Chapter F (Stets and others, 2025), which is an integrated assessment of water availability. A comprehensive description of water availability requires consideration of multiple aspects, such as the amount and conditions of water (quantity and quality), along with the sensitivity of users to those conditions. This chapter uses information from the assessments of water supply, quality, and use to create a more integrated investigation of water availability across CONUS. This investigation includes the use of an index referred to as the surface water-supply and use index (SUI), which determines the relative stress from potential imbalances between water supply and water use.

Online Linkage:https://doi.org/10.3133/pp1894F