Flexible Operation of Water Infrastructure to Provide Electricity System Services

The fact that water can be economically stored more easily than electricity can in principle allow water to be used as a proxy or hedge for electricity. Agricultural pumps, desalination plants, and wastewater treatment plants could have potential to provide valued demand response services to the electric grid by time-shifting their operations to times of lower electricity demand and/or prices. Furthermore, if these same types of water infrastructure are able to rapidly vary their electric load in response to electric grid needs (e.g., through the use of variable speed pumps), they may be able to provide a range of ancillary services. This session seeks to both inform and receive input from IEEE members and other electricity sector experts regarding possibilities for provision of electricity system services by water infrastructure.