206 - Quantifying Hidden Costs: Investigating the Relationship Between Electricity Transfers among Balancing Authorities and Groundwater Depletion in the United States

Groundwater depletion is a major global phenomenon that has an impact on the availability of freshwater supplies for agricultural, industrial, and residential use. While the impacts of agriculture on groundwater depletion is extensively documented, the repercussions of electricity transfers on this critical issue have remained relatively unknown. Several US regions, however, have relied on groundwater as their primary source of water. For instance, in multiple Southwestern counties, the reliance on groundwater to meet thermoelectric cooling water demand is particularly acute. Notably, Apache County, Arizona, obtains approximately 70% of its cooling water from groundwater sources. In this regard, the purpose of this work is to investigate the hidden costs of electricity generation and exchanges amongst US balancing authorities, with a special emphasis on their intrinsic link to groundwater depletion. We use cooling groundwater withdrawal and consumption data from approximately 500 power plants from the Energy Information Administration database. This information allows us to calculate the nonrenewable groundwater associated with sub-annual energy exchanges between balancing authorities. These amounts are then combined with groundwater depletion metrics to determine the system's vulnerability. Our research sheds light on the broader implications of the interplay between groundwater depletion and electricity transfers, informing critical decisions and policies aimed at safeguarding the precious groundwater resources while navigating the ongoing transitions in the energy sector.