Energy audit of irrigation networks

Abstract

16 17The relationship between water and energy in water distribution systems (WDS) has been a 18 growing concern among energy and water experts. Among the different strategies to improve 19 water-energy efficiency in water distribution networks, energy audits are of paramount 20 importance as they quantify water flow requirements, the amount of energy consumed to meet 21 demand and leakage and friction losses. Previous work has presented the energy audit process 22for urban WDS and this energy audit is extended to irrigation networks here. This work 23 analyses the most common types of irrigation emitters (sprinklers and pressure compensating 24 and non-pressure compensating drippers), hydrant specifications, irrigation management 25 *Manuscript Click here to view linked References systems (on-demand or rigid scheduled), and energy losses due to friction in pipes, control 26 valves and irrigation hydrants. The energy audit does not assess whether management of the 27 network is optimal, but analyses the energy consumption. Some of the performance indicators 28 have already been defined for agricultural water networks, some are identical to those of urban 29 WDS, but in addition, a new one is presented that disaggregates the energy dissipated into three 30 terms, energy losses in pipelines, in hydraulic valves and in irrigation hydrants. These indicators 31show information necessary to better understand the performance of the irrigation network 32 under study, to carry out a deep analysis of energy consumption and to allow for comparison 33 with similar systems. The paper presents the analysis of a real case study conducted on the 34 irrigation network of the garden of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. 35 36

A software for considering leakage in water pressurized networks

“…To show this methodology can be used in some other networks, four additional cases are presented. Figure shows the layout of networks B, C, D, and E. Case B is the Anytown network (a very well‐known hydraulic model used in many scientific works) and case C is a programmed sprinkling system used for watering the garden of a university . The network irrigates an area of 10.63 ha and consists of 326 nodes, 186 pipes, a water well, two impeller pumps running in parallel and 141 solenoid valves upstream of the water discharge outlets, which are the hydrants.…”

Huella energética del agua en función de los patrones de consumo en redes de distribución

“…Como el objetivo de la metodología es comparar el balance energético atendiendo al patrón de consumo, no se consideran las fugas, analizando únicamente el efecto del patrón de consumo. Sin embargo, dicho volumen de fugas sí debería tenerse en cuenta en caso de realizar una auditoría energética de una red real (Pardo et al, 2013;Cabrera et al, 2014). En el trabajo de Pérez-Sánchez et al (2016) se discretizó a partir del balance global del sistema de la Ecuación (4) en diferentes términos de energía para cada línea y tipo de nudo de consumo (hidrante o acometida final de usuario) a través de la Ecuación (5) generalizada:…”

“…Las auditorías son prioritarias para poder centrar los objetivos de actuación en el sistema analizado y una vez desarrolladas estas actuaciones, mejorar la eficiencia de la red (Cabrera et al, 2010;Pardo et al, 2013). Estos objetivos principalmente son: reducción de las fugas en el sistema (Araujo et al, 2006), mejora de los equipos de bombeo (Cabrera et al, 2014) y desarrollo de metodologías que minimicen las alturas de inyección (Jiménez-Bello et al, 2015;Moreno et al, 2010) si la red es inyectada.…”

Calibrating a flow model in an irrigation network: Case study in Alicante, Spain

“…Water management becomes more efficient when a deep knowledge of the network is done by modelling (Carravetta et al, 2012;Pardo et al, 2013;Cabrera et al, 2014;Butera & Balestra, 2015;Emec et al, 2015;Delgoda et al, 2016), increasing the sustainability of the whole system and decreasing the water footprint (Corominas, 2010;Ramos et al, 2010a,b). This knowledge of the network (mainly flows and pressure) allows the design of strategies to transform the WDNs in multipurpose systems (Choulot, 2010).…”