Metropolitan Water District (Metropolitan) is a public agency charged with providing its service area with adequate and sufficient supplies of high quality water. Metropolitan was incorporated in 1928 by an Act of the California Legislature to serve its 13 original founding Member Agencies. Today, Metropolitan provides water to 26 cities and water agencies serving more than 19 million people in six counties in Southern California. On average Metropolitan delivers 1.7 billion gallons of water per day. California, the third-largest state in the U.S. by land area, has a diverse geography including foggy coastal areas, alpine mountain ranges, hot and arid deserts, and a fertile central valley. California is also the most populous state, exceeding 37 million people in 2010. California’s large population drives the interlinked demands for water and energy in the state. The water-energy nexus in California is highlighted by the fact that two-thirds of the population resides in Southern California while two-thirds of the state’s precipitation occurs in Northern California. Separating Southern California from the rest of the state is a series of east-west trending mountain ranges. Water conveyance projects have been constructed to address this north-south water imbalance and to also import supplies from the Colorado River, hundreds of miles east of Southern California population centers. The movement of water on this scale requires significant energy resources. The California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates that water-related energy use consumes 19% of the state’s electricity and 30% of its natural gas usage every year, and demand is growing. Energy management is a critical concern to Metropolitan and other California water agencies. These issues drive water and energy leaders to jointly manage energy and water use to ensure long-term mutual benefits.
