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Global Journal of Science Frontier Research
Agriculture and Veterinary
Volume 13 Issue 5 Version 1.0 Year 2013
Type : Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal
Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA)
Online ISSN: 2249-4626 & Print ISSN: 0975-5896
Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in
Agricultural Sector – A Case Study
By K. Swarnasri & Dr. SVL Narasimham
RVR & JC College of Engineering
Abstract -
Agriculture is primary occupation in India and largely depends on ground water because of
unscheduled canals, lowrain fall etc., Electrical Energy consumption for agricultural purpose has a major
share in national energy consumption. Even though several methods have been followed from the past to
lift ground water, pumps operated by electrical motors occupy larger percentage. Thus availability of
electricity and availability of ground water became two vital elements for flourishment of agriculture and
country to prosper. Operating hours of pumpset for various crops depends on amount of water required
for the crop. In a crop cycle, for proper crop growth several irrigation cycles need to be scheduled. As
there is direct dependence on electricity with water required for crops, estimation of energy consumed
based on water required will definitely be an imperative task of interest. There is always a chance to show
a high value for energy consumed by agricultural sector, which is not metered in Andhra Pradesh. In this
paper, energy consumed for various crops is estimated in six districts of Andhra Pradesh covered by
Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (APSPDCL). This method may be useful in
arriving at most reliable estimates for the energy consumed in agriculture.
Keywords : agricultural sector, crop water requirement, electrical energy consumption.
GJSFR-D Classification : FOR Code: 070199
Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector A Case Study
Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of
:
Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy
Consumption in Agricultural Sector – A Case
Study
K. Swarnasri
α
& Dr. SVL Narasimham σ
Abstract
-
Agriculture is primary occupation in India and
largely depends on ground water because of unscheduled
canals, lowrain fall etc., Electrical Energy consumption for
agricultural purpose has a major share in national energy
consumption. Even though several methods have been
followed from the past to lift ground water, pumps operated by
electrical motors occupy larger percentage. Thus availability of
electricity and availability of ground water became two vital
elements for flourishment of agriculture and country to
prosper. Operating hours of pumpset for various crops
depends on amount of water required for the crop. In a crop
cycle, for proper crop growth several irrigation cycles need to
be scheduled. As there is direct dependence on electricity with
water required for crops, estimation of energy consumed
based on water required will definitely be an imperative task of
interest. There is always a chance to show a high value for
energy consumed by agricultural sector, which is not metered
in Andhra Pradesh. In this paper, energy consumed for
various crops is estimated in six districts of Andhra Pradesh
covered by Andhra Pradesh Southern Power Distribution
Company Limited (APSPDCL). This method may be useful in
arriving at most reliable estimates for the energy consumed in
agriculture.
Keywords
: agricultural sector, crop water requirement,
electrical energy consumption.
I.
Introduction
ver the past two decades, ground water has
emerged as one of the primary source for
irrigation. Free access to power and availability
of water at point of use and whenever required are
leading the farmers to adapt ground water irrigation over
large scale. Supply of power to agriculture has become
an important and inevitable aspect.
During the past four decades, percentage of
land irrigated through surface irrigation has declined
and subsequently millions of small, private bore wells
have come into use resulting in increased use of ground
water resources and increased energy consumption. In
many Indian states the consumption of 35-45% of total
energy is reported in this sector and it represented not
more than5-10% of state electricity board’s revenue [1].
Increase in number of bore wells has put a tremendous
stress on power distribution system. Though there has
been an increase in number of wells, after a certain
break point extraction of ground water and area irrigated
with groundwater has stabilized. In Andhra Pradesh
ultimate irrigation potential through ground water is 32
Million Hectares[2].
Linkage between energy and irrigation are
reviewed by many authors with Government, Non-
Government and social organizations in different
perspectives with the aims of reduction in ground water
draft, ultimate ground water potentialcomputations,
water and energy nexus etc.,. S. Padmanabhan& Ashok
Sarkar addressed the benefits and importance of
Demand side management in India with emphasis on
agricultural sector [1]. The linkage between energy
consumption and agricultural ground water draft for
many years with insights of India and Mexico are
reviewed in [3].
Present tariff structure, poorenergy and water
management appear to be responsible for high energy
loss associated with the distribution network, end use of
electricity in irrigation water pumping and water loss.
A careful examination of higher losses reveals
that a poor cycle that exists with the involvement of two
subsystems operating in tandem with one another - the
electrical distribution system and the water pumping
system are responsible. Because of this poor cycle,
returns from this sector are very minute compared to
huge investments and the utility revenues are
deteriorating and subsequently fewer revenues are
available for rehabilitation of distribution systems. This
resulted in suboptimal planning, low quality of works
and further forcing the utility to consider load shedding.
Table – I describes the total energy sales and revenue
from agricultural sector for various years. Table – II
shows the number of pump sets used for irrigation
under Category V and gross area irrigated across the
state.
O
Author
α
: Associate Professor, EEE Department, RVR &JC College of
Engineering, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India.
E-mail : swarnasrik@gmail.com
Author
σ
:Professor, School of Information Technology, JNTU
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India .
1
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E-mail : svlnarasimham@gmail.com
Table I :
Amount of power supplied and revenues in Andhra Pradesh
Year 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Total Energy sales for all
DISCOMs (MU)
52,527.59 57,201.70 65037.84 70422.30
Energy Sales under
category V (MU)
13,397.80 14,203.66 15197.39 16565.16
Total Revenues from tariffs
(Crores)
13,510.00 15,374.33 20,939.00 25,957.91
Revenue under Category V
(Crores)
142.00 129.74 74.51 147.78
Source
: APTRANSCO
Table II :
Number of pump sets energized and gross area irrigated
Year
No. of
pumpsets
energized
Gross area
irrigated by
Wells (Mha)
Year
No. of
pumpsets
energized
Gross area
irrigated by
Wells (Mha)
2000 19,18,712 26.93 2006 24,40,823 28.91
2001 19,24,543 26.18 2007 25,27,800 31.74
2002 19,34,389 24.78 2008 25,99,635 34.71
2003 22,49,894 25.73 2009 26,80,671 33.43
2004 23,09,605 25.63 2010 27,69,275 36.72
2005 23,74,365 27.96 2011 29,09,006 36.99#
Source: Agricultural research data book – 2009 & Directorate of Economics and Statistics
# Estimated from previous years data
The capacity of pump sets that are energized is
based on the region where it is installed, crops irrigated,
area of land holding. Water pumped from each pumpset
is based on type of crop, depth of irrigation required,
type of soil, atmospheric conditions, percolation,
irrigation schedules etc. energy consumption by each
pumpset is having a direct relation with amount of water
pumped assuming that the water is abundantly
available.Over exploitation of ground water in many
regions of the state combined with idle operation of
pumpsets is further leaving the entire distribution
network as low efficient system.
II. Water Requirement for Crops
Regardless of the sources, water requirement
(WR) of a crop is the quantity of water required in a
given crop period for its maturity. WR depends on
parameters like transmissivity, water retention in soil,
transmission and absorption within plant, transpiration,
atmospheric conditions and rain fall etc. Unavoidable
irrigation losses due to Evapo transpiration, water
application may need to be considered.
Irrigation requirement (IR) of a field is the sum
total of irrigation need for an individual crop in a
specified time plus the losses occurring in field
distribution such as seepage, percolation etc. Irrigation
frequency depends on crop consumptive use (CU) and
the amount of available moisture in root zone. Sandy
soils must be irrigated more often than fine textured
deep soils. Irrigation period is the number of days that
can be allowed for applying oneirrigation to a given area
during the peak CU period.With the predefined water
sources, main aim of irrigation scheduling is to obtain
maximum production per unit water.
For the same crop, water requirement varies
depending on type of soil and atmospheric conditions.
In broader sense, the better classification of the areas
for evaluating water requirement could be Humid, Semi
Arid and Arid. As the methods of irrigation, rain fall and
atmospheric conditions are not uniform across the state,
region under consideration is taken as Semi Arid and
crop water requirement is taken as in [5] for
calculationsand the same is shown in Table III as depth
of water required. In Table III Other crops include pulses,
annual crops, horticulture crops, fruits and
miscellaneous crops. For sesame, turmeric and chilies
data is not found in the regions selected and
appropriate values on higher side are considered for
initiating the evaluation of net quantity of water to be
applied.
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Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector –A Case Study
Table III :
Water requirement of crops in mm
Crop Water required Crop Water required Crop Water required
Rice 1200 Turmeric 1000 Ground nuts 920
Wheat 650 Sugarcane 2700 Sesame 400
Jowar 950 Potatoes 900 Sunflower 500
Bajra 500 Sweet Potatoes 900 Soybean 680
Maize 1220 Onions 500 Tobacco 600
Ragi 450 Vegetables 750 Other crops 1250
Chilies 500 Cotton 1220
For aiding calculations, it is considered that all
the water required for crops is supplied through
irrigation cycles only. Table IV shows the total area
irrigated under different crops & Number of agricultural
motors in six districts of APSPDCL for 2008-09, 2009-10
& 2010-11. Detailed crop wise list is available in season
and crop report published by APDES.
Table IV
:
Area under Ground water irrigation & Number of sets Energized under APSPDCL districts [9]
Years
Districts
2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
Area
In Hectares
Number of
Agricultural
motors
In Hectares Number of
Agricultural
motors
In Hectares Number of
Agricultural
motors
Krishna 1,06,245 68,509 93,785 71,997 1,00,796 75,437
Guntur 1,04,363 60,219 1,15,284 63,226 1,28,756 66,840
Prakasam 1,12,396 92,566 1,13,941 96,408 1,26,101 1,01,645
Nellore 98,834 1,17,278 93,833 1,19,610 99,119 1,27,613
Kadapa 1,53,516 1,00,544 1,61,385 1,06,267 1,62,917 1,11,230
Chittor 1,63,117 2,38,496 1,72,123 2,49,630 1,75,612 2,62,994
Water heads for different districts for the same
years is listed from the tables published by Ground
water Board. Following is the list of data available in
below ground water level
(bgl). But in practical
situations, these values cannot be considered for
calculations as available heads. These values are on
lower side and may not result in good estimates of
power consumption.
Table V :
Ground water levels in meters (bgl)
Districts
Years
Krishna
Guntur
Prakasam
Nellore
Kadapa
Chittor
2009
6.85
4.75
4.92
4.27
7.23
8.4
2010
5.12
2.47
3.31
3.19
5.89
6.81
2011
4.54
2.90
3.65
3.24
5.99
6.33
III.
Energy Requirement of Crops
Electrical Energy is required for crops to meet
the irrigation requirement and in special cases for crop
processing after the harvest. Scope of this paper is
limited to evaluation of energy required for pumping
water during irrigation scheduling only based on crop
water requirement.
a)
Estimation of Energy requirement based on actual
water required
Year wise area irrigated with ground water is
collected from Directorate of Economics & Statistics for
listed crops and is used for calculations.
Actual water
required and energy required in cultivating crops is
computed.
Upon knowing the actual water required in m3,
simple irrigator’s equation helps in computing the time
of irrigation when once the discharge is assumed.
Ax d = Q x t (1)
Where A = Area under irrigation in m2
d= depth
of irrigation in m Q= discharge through pumpset in
m3/sec t= time required for irrigation.
Discharge through pipe in lit/sec is another
parameter to be assumed. It is found that high water
intense crops are usually cultivated in the regions where
Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector –A Case Study
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abundant ground water is available and the discharge
would be through higher diameter pipe at high velocity.
Information regarding crop wise number of
irrigation resources (pumps) is not available. Hence
number of irrigation pumps under each crop during
estimation is worked out as percentage of water
required.
Upon knowing the time of irrigation and number
of irrigation resources, district wise specific energy
consumed can easily be estimated in kWh/hp. (Kilo Watt
Hour / Horse Power)
Consumption in kWh/hp = t*0.745
%Efficiency
(2)
Consumption in kWh/hp is also evaluated by
modifying the number of pump
sets with district wise
Percentage of area irrigated in hectares. When the
weighted average is taken for specific consumption
based on amount of water required and area irrigated,
value is found to be same.
District wise results are
presented from Table VI to Table VIII after estimation.
Results of
the proposed methodology are checked with
the values given/projected by APSPDCL in Tariff Orders
filings of respective years.
APDES collects district wise data every year for
publishing several annual statistical reports. Data used
for estimation in this paper is based on the reports from
APDES and hence the estimates arevalidated.
Pump’s discharge, number of pumpsets, hp
ratings can be known exactly at the feeder level. It will
lead to most reliable approximation with proposed
calculations at micro level.
IV.
Results & Discussions
As motors capacity is not known, with the help
of number of motors and area under Ground water
irrigation, year wise number of hectares per motor in
APSPDCL districts is tabulated in Table VI.
Table VI
:
Year wise irrigated area: No. of hectares/ motor in APSPDCL districts
District
Year
Krishna
Guntur
Prakasam
Nellore
Kadapa
Chittor
2008-2009
1.55
1.73
1.21
0.84
1.53
0.68
2009-2010
1.30
1.82
1.18
0.78
1.52
0.69
2010-2011
1.34
1.93
1.24
0.78
1.46
0.67
Table VII
:
District wise estimated specific consumption in kWh/hp
District
Year
Krishna
Guntur
Prakasam
Nellore
Kadapa
Chittor
Average
Units/hp
2008-2009
859.28
844.38
590.10
496.85
764.32
451.53
667.74
2009-2010
744.28
874.62
582.09
458.09
775.84
456.58
648.58
2010-2011
816.09
921.05
605.84
458.02
760.92
452.52
669.07
Figure 1 :
Yer wise estimated specific consumption for six districts under APSPDCL
2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
450
500
550
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
Year ------>
Specific Consumption in kWh/hp ---->
Nellore
Prakasam
Average
Kadapa
Guntur
Krishna
Chittor
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Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector –A Case Study
With year wise specific consumptions for all
districts in Table VII,total consumption is estimated.
Number of pumpsets are taken as per Table IV and
district wise average hp indicated in Table VIII. District
wise average hp is calculated as per the number of sets
under paid category and is available in [7].
Table VIII
:
District wise errors in estimation with the data from APDES#[8]
Year
Districts
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Agricult
ural
Energy
consum
ption in
MU#
Estimated
Consum
ption MU
%Error
in
Estimati
on MU
Agricultur
al Energy
consump
tion in
MU#
Estimated
Consump
tion
% Error
in
Estimati
on
Agricultur
al Energy
consump
tion in
MU#
Estimated
Consump
tion
%Error
in
Estimati
on
Krishna
4.67hp
252.20
274.92
-9.01
342.78
250.25
27.00
318.53
287.50
9.74
Guntur
4.72hp
267.19
240.00
10.18
301.00
261.01
13.29
294.23
290.58
1.24
Prakasam
5.18hp
576.56
282.95
50.92
647.00
290.70
55.07
470.83
318.99
32.25
Nellore4.28hp
449.56
249.40
44.52
523.00
234.51
55.16
560.06
250.16
55.33
Kadapa
9.01hp
989.51
692.40
30.03
1128.00
742.84
34.15
1064.70
762.58
28.38
Chittor6.17hp
1096.62
664.44
39.41
1255.00
703.23
43.97
1199.54
734.29
38.79
Total / Average
5.67hp
3631.64
2566.26
29.34
4196.78
2601.24
38.02
3907.89
2829.98
27.58
Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector –A Case Study
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Figure 2:
Year wise % Error in estimation with data from [8]
2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
-10
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Year ---->
% Error ----->
Nellore
Prakasam
Chittor
Average
Kadapa
Krishna
Guntur
Cumulative estimates of power consumption
under all districts of APSPDCL are compared with the
power consumption under agriculture category V. Total
input to distribution network in MU is taken from Annual
reports of respective years. Percentage of excess
Consumption which may be going as losses and
pilferage is calculated.
reports of respective years. Percentage of excess
Consumption which may be going as losses and
pilferage is calculated.
Cumulative estimates of power consumption
under all districts of APSPDCL are compared with the
power consumption under agriculture category V. Total
input to distribution network in MU is taken from Annual
---
Table IX
:
Estimation for the three years from values given by APSPDCL
Year
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Total input to distribution network in MU
13805.48
15741.05
16449.08
Consumption Under LT Category V in MU
3459.25
4167.82
3664.49
Estimated value in MU
2566.26
2601.24
2829.98
Excess consumption in MU
892.99
1566.58
834.51
% of excess consumption reported
6.47%
9.95%
5.07%
V.
Conclusions
With an aim of calculation of actual energy
required to pump ground water in agricultural sector,
district wise details of crops for different years are
collected and the energy required is estimated. The
estimation is carried out on the basis of actual water
required. During computations, some parameters are
assumed and the assumed values are presented.
Requirement based estimation is most reliable study as
it considers all the crops that are in source. To obtain
results, all the water required for irrigation is assumed to
be pumped through ground water only. Estimation is
carried out for three years with the six districts under
APSPDCL of Andhra Pradesh. District wise results are
compared with the estimates published by APDES in
year book s of respective years. DISCOM wise result is
compared for three years with reference to consumption
unaccounted. Thisamount of unaccounted or loss
energy would be of high value when the rain fall
conditions are also taken into account. This estimation
would produce most realistic value with micro level
evaluation.
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©2013 Global Journals Inc. (US)
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Requirement Based Evaluation of Energy Consumption in Agricultural Sector –A Case Study
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reported under category V. From results, Excess
consumption reported by utilities can be reflected as
Percentage of saving potential or amount of energy that