Agriculture and Agribusiness

Irrigation Pumping and Energy Efficiency

Energy is usually the largest cash cost of irrigating, and most irrigation pumps run away from their best efficiency point because the system they were sized for was never the system that got built. This course reconciles the two. Delegates work through irrigation system head: static lift, friction, operating pressure and the way a scheme's head changes as blocks are switched. Pump selection follows against that duty, including the consequences of oversizing, which is the most common and most expensive error. Borehole and surface pump configurations are covered. Motor and starter selection follows, along with power factor and the tariff structure that determines what a kilowatt hour actually costs. Variable speed drives are addressed with the affinity laws and the applications where they genuinely pay. Solar pumping is covered for irrigation duty, including array sizing against daily volume rather than peak flow. Measurement is addressed through flow, pressure and energy per volume pumped. The course closes on scheduling to tariff periods and on diagnosing a pump that has drifted off duty.