Trial to cut irrigators’ power bills

The trial program, dubbed the Energy Saver Pilot, will co-fund energy efficiency audits for 10 different irrigation operations, to help develop business case examples of on-farm energy reduction measures.

Far West NSW cropping, pastoral and irrigation company, Tandou, did an energy audit similar to the pilot program in 2012, which revealed network charges comprised more than 90 per cent of the bill.

Tandou’s drip irrigation and environmental manager David McClure said Tandou didn’t “fully understand” the different components of its energy bill.

“Naively, we thought the amount of energy we used was the largest determinant of the cost, but that was not the case.”

“The trial can help make sure irrigators are fully aware of the components of their electricity bill, help them to make on-farm decisions about managing energy use, and, hopefully, put more dollars in their pocket.”

The department’s audit produced about a dozen areas of potential energy savings, three of which were turned into business cases.

“Two of them have been implemented,” Mr McClure said.

“We saw we had to drastically amend our management of drip irrigation blocks,” Mr McClure said.

“We decided to change from 100pc sub-surface irrigation to a to hybrid system with some furrow irrigation.”

A third business case, a biomass plant run on cellulose waste from Tandou’s cotton gin, is currently on hold.

Irrigators are required to pay up to half the cost of the audit, capped at $5000.

The pilot could also offer additional savings through a credit system run by the environment department, in which investments in energy efficiency upgrades identified by the audit are rewarded with credits that can in turn be spent on equipment such as pumps.

Contact NSW Irrigators or Cotton Australia for details of the trial.