RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Benchmarking energy efficiency in water utilities: Evidence from England and Wales
A1 Molinos Senante, María
A1 Maziotis, Alexandros
A1 Sala Garrido, Ramón
A1 Mocholí Arce, Manuel
K1 Energy efficiency
K1 Regression trees
K1 Free disposal hull
K1 Data envelopment analysis
K1 Environmental variables
K1 Drinking water service
K1 2508.11 Calidad de las Aguas
AB Production and distribution of drinking water is an energy intensive process. Understanding the energy efficiencyof drinking water services and what drives efficiency could improve sustainability of water cycle. In this study,we use the Efficiency Analysis Trees (EAT) method to benchmark the energy efficiency of several water utilitiesin England and Wales based on their energy consumption. Unlike traditional parametric and non-parametricmethods previously used to assess the performance of water utilities, EAT does not suffer from overfitting. Wefurther employ bootstrap truncated regression techniques to understand what drives energy performance. Theresults showed that the average energy efficiency of the English and Welsh water industry during the 2011–2020period was 0.767. This means that energy consumption could be reduced by 23.3% while delivering the samelevel of water to customers. Equivalently, on average water utilities could potentially save 63,479 MWh per year.Water treatment complexity, source of raw water and population density were factors that influenced energyefficiency of drinking water supply processes. Conclusions of this study are useful to water regulators and watercompanies for informed decisions towards a low-carbon urban water cycle.
PB Elsevier
SN 0360-8352
YR 2025
FD 2025
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/78653
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/78653
LA eng
NO Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2025, vol. 209, p. 111457
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 18-oct-2025