The main objective of this study is to investigate potential on-farm energy saving with sectoring management and with different pumping systems (fixed speed pump/variable speed pump/small parallel pumps). The study was conducted on a solid set sprinkler system designed using the Labye’s iterative discontinuous method to irrigate 10 hectares of potato crop under arid conditions of Egypt. The operational parameters (pressure/discharge) of the system were obtained from the intersection of the network/sector and pump characteristic curves. Using the pump efficiency curves and the total volume of water applied, energy consumption for any management and design scenario is obtained.
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The analysis revealed that sectoring with the system operating with 2 pumps in parallel or with a variable frequency drive (VFD) pump reduced the energy consumption by 26% and 15% respectively when compared to the conventional operation. Energy saving resulted from the lower friction losses in the main pipes (lower volume of water flowing in the pipes) and from the better water application uniformity (more uniform pressure). Also the cost of using two pumps in parallel was lowered by 35% and 54% with respect to one fixed speed and to VFD pumps, respectively.
