Energy

How drought threatens the power grid


The nation’s increasingly dire water crisis is also threatening the power supply.

Generating electricity takes a lot of water and not just when it comes to hydroelectric dams. Water is crucial for cooling power plants — especially during record heat waves. Plus it takes a lot of energy to extract, purify and deliver water.

Plummeting water levels in vast swaths of the country from drought and overuse are pushing the grid to the brink during a record hot summer that has sent power demand soaring.

Last month, dwindling water flow cut the Hoover Dam’s power generation capacity nearly in half. And the future outlook is not good.

The megadrought in the West is drying up the Colorado River at an astounding rate and draining Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the country’s largest reservoirs.

Lake Mead powers the Hoover Dam, which can produce enough electricity for about 1.3 million people every year in California, Arizona and Nevada. Lake Powell fuels the Glen Canyon Dam, which generates slightly more than half that amount.

Now, the seven states that rely on the Colorado River must come up with a plan to save 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water. (Four million acre-feet is enough water to submerge D.C. about 90 feet deep.)

But dividing the pain of a diminished water supply is proving challenging, and the Biden administration has imposed modest cuts while allowing negotiations to go into overtime.

The megadrought is not confined to the Colorado River. Parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island are experiencing extreme drought. And 50 percent of the lower 48 states are suffering drought as well.

Wells are drying up in California, which is experiencing the driest 22-year stretch in more than 1,200 years. Farmers are either paying a premium for water or letting their fields sit empty.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom this month outlined a plan to address looming reductions to the state’s water supplies, unveiling proposals that would expand desalination and increase water reuse and recycling.

But the proposal has faced some opposition from groups that say it fails to take the necessary steps of curbing water use by agriculture companies and gas power plants.

It’s Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]

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