Search the Library

Semi-Autonomous Facility Emergency Response (SAFER) for Energy-Water Resilience

The focal area of this whitepaper is enhancing cyber security for integrated energy-water systems. The near-term opportunity is to provide a decision support system (controller) to assist the hydroelectric plant operators during communications outages or during a cyber event (cybe...

Markel, L., Mukherjee, S., Liu, Y., Itiki, R., and Yoginath, S.

A Probabilistic Framework for Uncovering Water-Energy Infrastructure Dependencies and Assessing Systemic Consequences

The coupling of water and energy systems is critical for ensuring resilient infrastructure, particularly as water plays an essential role in the safe and reliable operation of energy sources. The dependency on water becomes increasingly complex when energy systems are integrated w...

Yigitoglu, A., Muhlheim, M., Smith, A., Ramuhalli, P., and Berres, A.

Energy/Water Operation Smart Contract for Hydropower Plant/Data Centers

We propose an Energy/Water Operation Smart Contract that securely coordinates hydropower plant operations with energy-intensive data-center clusters using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). The smart contract provides a decentralized, tamper-resistant layer for operational contr...

Hink, R., Piesciorovsky, E., Hahn, G., Werth, A., and Wang, H.

GORMan: A framework for Governance, Ontologies, and Risk Management of scalable, cross-sector integration of secure energy-water infrastructure information

This white paper addresses the inherent challenges in applying data-driven approaches to integrated energy-water solutions across the US due to the lack of standardization in collection, storage, governance, management, curation and risk mitigation among data owners across scales...

Fishler, H., May, A., Knight, K., and Rebillout, L.

Aligning Bytes with Basins to Promote Data Center Growth in the U.S.

This white paper examines the water-energy tradeoffs of U.S. data-center expansion, highlighting how cooling choices, power sourcing, and siting decisions shape local water security, grid resilience, and watershed sustainability. The study focuses on integrating direct (on-site po...

Siddik, M., Turner, S., and Chinthavali, S.

Monitoring, Planning, and Management of Water Quality and Quantity for Resilient Water and Energy Systems

Both resilient systems where water is used for energy production and energy is used for treatment and operation depend not only on the quantity of water, but also quality and environmental health. Addressing gaps in environmental health and infrastructure condition/capability data...

Hansen, C., DeRolph, C., Allen-Dumas, M., Griffiths, N., Matson, P., Pilla, R., Siddik, A., Stevenson, L., and Johnson, R.

Integrated Water-Energy-Economics Framework for Public Water System Resilience

This paper highlights key energy-for-water challenges in U.S. public water systems (PWS): aging infrastructure, cost recovery gaps, hydrologic vulnerabilities, and high-demand users like data centers--which concentrate near population centers and existing PWS. It underscores the n...

Siddik, M., Ahmad, N., Guaita, S., and Chinthavali, S.

Integrated Planning for Resilient Energy-, Infrastructure-, and Hydro-Scapes

The focus of this paper is nationally-comprehensive, hyper-granular assessment of future energy expansion opportunities and challenges, considering multi-dimensional risks and consequent implications of large infrastructure additions on surface water and groundwater, spanning from...

McCollum, D., Rathore, S., Liu, Y., and Parish, E.

Hybrid Additive Manufacturing and Overmolding of Polymer/Metal Lattices for Efficient Cooling Systems for Waterpower Applications

This proposal addresses the Water for Energy challenge by developing advanced hybrid thermal management structures that can reduce water consumption by 15-25% in cooling processes for power generation, energy storage, and power electronics. Further reductions are possible through ...

Talabi, S., Nawaz, K., and Hassen, A.

Marine-Source Integrated Heat Pump System for Remote Coastal and Island Communities

The white paper "Marine-Source Integrated Heat Pump (MS-IHP) System for Remote Coastal and Island Communities" focuses on the Water for Energy research area. Roughly 3.8 million U.S. coastal homes still rely on fossil fuel heating, and 1.3 million use inefficient electric resist...

Gao, Z., and Kowalski, S.