Energy Management of Pumping Systems in Irrigation Districts

Several energy saving strategies were investigated to decrease production costs and to optimize the use of electrical energy by small farmers that are participants of irrigation districts. The research was carried out at the Miroros Irrigation District, located in Ibipeba, Bahia State, Brazil. This energy management study of pumping systems in irrigation districts focus on two objectives. The first objective was to resize water pumping systems by matching the hydraulic and electrical characteristics of pump and motors to the demand. For the motors, five possibilities were studied to choose the one that provided the required power with minimum cost. The possibilities of studied were: (i) the current motor, standard type, (ii) an alternative standard type motor, that kept the load index as high as possible, (iii) high efficient type of motor with same power rating, (iv) high efficient motor but with power adequate to the demand, (v) a motor efficient type sized based on the number of hours of operation. The second objective was to investigate the districts water management plan to minimize energy costs considering both electrical energy and demand costs. A study of water usage by the participant farmers was conducted, to determine how multiple users potentially using the system simultaneously affect water costs. Reduction of the amount of electrical energy used for irrigation has potential to bring significant benefits to small farmers in the form of reduced cost through increased energy efficiency with potential savings of around 31% of costs.