Semi-arranged demand as an energy saving measure for pressurized irrigation networks

In many regions, water resource scarcity has required adapting irrigated agriculture towards more efficient water distribution networks and irrigation systems. These systems, however, have higher energy requirements. To overcome this problem, a new semi-arranged demand model combining network sectoring and critical points have been developed. The model computes a new indicator known as the optimal number of disabled hydrants (ONDHY) to determine the number of critical hydrants in the sector that are only allowed to irrigate at off-peak hours, while the rest of non-critical hydrants can irrigate at any time. The proposed model has been applied to each of the 11 irrigation networks in the Bembezar MD irrigation district located in southern Spain. The results showed potential energy savings of 5.6%-25.8% with 14.5% and 7.8% of critical hydrants that could only operate during off-peak hours, respectively, thus satisfying crop irrigation requirements. The proposed methodology is a useful and easy tool to optimize energy consumption in pressurized irrigation networks.