This report presents a critical literature of the research pertaining to energy use and management in water distribution systems. It is not exhaustive, but rather selective, and gives a fairly representative cross-section of the different avenues of research connected with energy and water distribution. The goal is to offer the reader an up-to-date overview of where the current state of research is and what are the most interesting/urgent issues being studied. It also aims to provide a historical sense of how these various threads have developed and how they fit within the overall idea of energy/water use.