Energy consumption, costs and environmental impacts for urban water cycle services: Case study of Oslo (Norway)

Energy consumption in the operation and maintenance phase of the urban water and wastewater network is directly related to both the quantity and the desired quality of the supplied water/treated wastewater – in other words, to the level of service provided to consumers. The level of service is dependent on not just the quantity and quality of the water but also the state of the infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure so as to be able to provide the required high level of service also demands energy. Apart from being a significant operational cost component, energy use also contributes to life-cycle environmental impacts. This paper studies the direct energy consumption in the operation and maintenance phase of the water and wastewater system in Oslo; and presents a break-up among the different components of the network, of quantities, costs and environmental impacts. Owing to the diversity in the periods of time for which comprehensive data for the whole system are available, the study period is restricted to years 2000–2006. The per-capita annual consumption of energy in the operational phase of the system varied between 220 and 260 kWh; and per-capita annual expenses on energy in inflation-adjusted year-2006-Euros ranged between 6.5 and 11 Euros. The energy consumed on the upstream, per unit volume water supplied was around 0.4 kWh on average, while the corresponding value for the downstream was 0.8 kWh per cubic metre wastewater treated. The upstream Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions ranged between 70 and 80 g per cubic metre of water supplied, about 22% greater on average than the corresponding specific GHG emissions on the downstream.