Energy and Water Nexus Hits Critical Juncture in India
Neelam Mathews ENR (US) Drought and continued reliance on electric generation that uses water for cooling are causing some of India’s power plants to shut down for days and even months at a time, a problem that is expected to worsen, according to a new report from the World Resources Institute. “Water shortages shut down power plants across India every year. When power plants rely on water sourced from scarce regions, they put electricity generation at risk and leave less water for cities, farms, and families. Without urgent action, water will become a choke point for India’s power sector,” said O.P. Agarwal, CEO of World Resources Institute (WRI) India, in the paper “Parched Power,” released on Jan. 16. India lost 5.87 billion kilowatt-hours of power generation in 2016 due to the lack of water, Piyush Goyal, India’s power minister, told parliament last year. The loss in 2015 was about 5 billion kWh. In its own study, WRI found that the generation lost was more than do...