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Metering groundwater abstraction through electric energy consumption has become an increasingly common practice in groundwater management, particularly in the North China Plain, where numerous small-scale pumping wells are utilized for irrigation. A critical challenge lies in quantifying the relationship between energy consumption and water abstraction - specifically, establishing the electricity-to-water conversion factor that translates electric energy usage into groundwater withdrawal. Field experiments are necessary to determine this conversion factor due to the on-site conditions of pumps, wells and the power supply system. However, given the vast number of pumping wells in a region, testing each well is impractical. This raises a key question: what is the minimum number of wells that must be tested to obtain a statistically robust and regionally representative conversion factor?

A spreadsheet-based check-up tool has been developed to address this problem, utilizing minimal sample estimation to provide reliable answers. This tool is one of the outputs of a research project conducted in collaboration with Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai. The methodology is introduced in detail in the paper Wang, L., Kinzelbach, W., Yao, H., Steiner, J., & Wang, H. (2020). How to Meter Agricultural Pumping at Numerous Small-Scale Wells?—An Indirect Monitoring Method Using Electric Energy as Proxy. Water, 12(9), 2477. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12092477

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