IRRIGATION ENERGY EFFICIENCY EVALUATIONS Energy use - the unknown cost

The project – pilot study Funders EECA, Canterbury lines co, meridian, Environment Canterbury 15 on farm evaluations 1. Motor, pump, delivery system Efficiency & Performance 2. Scheduling/operation efficiency

The outputs Key Indicators o Energy consumed per volume of water used, kWh/m 3 o Power capacity per hectare kW/ha o Cost per m 3, $/ m 3 o Volume of water used per hectare/ irrigator o System capacity, mm/ha/day

Challenges Awareness of what water costs Data collection - is one flow meter enough? Bench marks Knowledge of what irrigators should be operating at flow and pressure Record keeping – as built plans, commissioning reports, performance testing reports Interpretation of data

What have we found Huge Range Issues Costs Savings Solutions Paybacks

Differences within a property AREA FLOW RATE AREA SERVED ha ELEC POWER DRAW kW kW/Ha Pivot Pivot West Sprinklers Ocmis Gun East/Gallery Sprinklers N/A

Options for solutions Two pumps feeding two pivots using joined line PRV in network to reduce pressure. The pump curve indicates each putting out around 570kPa of pressure, actual measured pressure is 445kPa, restrictors using 125kPa of pressure.

Options for solutions OPPORTUNITYCAPEXSAVINGSPAYBACK Install a VSD on P1 and P2 $20,000$7,980*2.6 yrs Reduce the impeller size on P1 and P2 $4,000$5,980**0.7 yrs

Issues – scheduling

Photo of berry gallery

Issues - maintenance & compliance

Regular maintenance

Issue - system redesign

Acton water charge $ %=$9500 wasted because could not access Whole system revamp - $182, o $ 26,396 upgrading mainline o $ 156,422 new pivot. Access all of Acton water, more water, energy savings from mainline changes, better use of water

Issue – poor supply intake

BEP flow Selected to supply DeliveringCost p.a Pump $2136 Pump $3944 $6080

Options to fix

What do we need to do Smarter use of water, and electricity, use data Farmers can find it difficult to interpret data - wary of information overload Need to have a starting point – commissioning and understanding very important- baseline to compare from set point within season and between seasons O and M important - be able to ID quantifiable change

Information and tools Tool that combines all of the data streams - Water use, electricity use, climate data. That spits out an automated monthly report with the Key Indicators for them to compare this months data against last month and the month before that …. Regular checks audit? Performance assessment? Asset management