Texas Consumed Less Water As A Result Of Natural Gas Power Plants, Study Concludes

A recent study by research scientists at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas-Austin has concluded that the state of Texas consumed less water as a result of using natural gas-fired power plants than it would have had it generated the same amount of electricity using coal-fired plants, and switching a single power plant to natural gas may save 25 to 30 times the amount of water that is used in the hydraulic fracturing process employed to produce fuel for that plant.  The overall impact of using natural gas power plants in Texas could help to make the state less susceptible to drought, despite the use of water for hydraulic fracturing.

Texas experienced the most extreme drought on record in 2011 with up to 100 days of triple digit temperatures resulting in record electricity demand and historically low reservoir levels. The study quantified water and electricity demand and supply for each power plant during the drought relative to 2010, the baseline. Drought raised electricity demands/generation by 6%, increasing water demands/consumption for electricity by 9%. Reductions in monitored reservoir storage <50% of capacity in 2011 would suggest drought vulnerability, but data show that the power plants were flexible enough at the plant level to adapt by switching to less water-intensive technologies. Natural gas, now ~50% of power generation in Texas, enhances drought resilience by increasing the flexibility of power plant generators, including gas combustion turbines to complement increasing wind generation and combined cycle generators with ~30% of cooling water requirements of traditional steam turbine plants. These reductions in water use are projected to continue to 2030 with increased use of natural gas and renewables. Although water use for gas production is controversial, these data show that water saved by using natural gas combined cycle plants relative to coal steam turbine plants is 25–50 times greater than the amount of water used in hydraulic fracturing to extract the gas.

The entire study, entitled "Drought and the Water-Energy Nexus in Texas," can be found here.