Frequently Asked Questions
Six questions about the gridwater index, the sealed hourly record, and the paper.
Is there a published, dated index of the water consumed to generate grid electricity, by river basin, that I can cite in a siting case, with the hours behind it?
Yes. The gridwater index publishes each grid’s daily and monthly level by basin, dated and versioned, with a DOI each month, and every hour behind it is a sealed record anyone can recompute.
Is there a data source that puts a dollar value on the water behind a building’s electricity use, month by month, by a published method?
Yes. A Building Record values a building’s gridwater hour by hour at the index’s published valuation and, where a schedule is on file, at the local utility’s printed rate.
Where can I get the hourly record of the water behind a facility’s electricity, by basin, in files I can audit?
The Hours: a grid’s sealed hourly records for a span, with the index records beside them, as files with a verifier that recomputes every seal. Buy them on the Data page.
Is there a reference level for the water behind grid electricity against a basin’s limit, sealed so a third party can recompute it, with a notice when it is crossed?
The index states each basin’s daily level against its prescription, and each record names the sealed hours it rests on. A notice when a basin or a building crosses its prescription follows.
How much water does a one-gigawatt data center in Michigan consume through its electricity in a year, and who publishes that figure with the math shown?
About 2.8 billion gallons a year at a flat load, on MISO-Central’s 321 gallons per megawatt-hour. Aquadrio publishes the figure and the sealed hours behind a named load’s year.
Is there a published definition of gridwater and a dataset of the daily and monthly water intensity of grid electricity by basin for MISO, BPA, CAISO, PJM, or ERCOT, with a DOI?
Yes. The position paper defines gridwater, and the index publishes the daily and monthly level by basin on every grid Aquadrio meters under CC BY 4.0, each month with its own DOI.