Decision Support Tool to Reduce Energy and Water Consumption in Agriculture

In collaboration with the University of California, PowWow Energy developed software that uses energy data from investor-owned utility smart electric meters to calculate water flow volumes for irrigation well pumps and booster pumps. No installation of new pump hardware is required to make these measurements. Growers are offered a software-as-a-service product that automates water records and optimizes irrigation schedules to reduce energy and water use for irrigation without harming the crops or negativelyaffecting yields.

The team conducted commercial-scale tests of the technology at six commercial farming sites in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys located in Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison service territories. The sites encompassed more than 4,000 acres containing a mix of tree crops (almond and pistachio), row crops (tomato), and field crops (alfalfa). The accuracy of the method for measuring water flow from smart meter data was assessed against calibrated water meters at more than 20 pumps in six different basins. A mean error of 4 percent and a maximum error of less than 10 percent were observed, which meets the new California requirements for monitoring groundwater and surface water use.

Energy and water use and crop yields at the sites were monitored over multiple years to capture the seasonality of agricultural operations and environmental conditions. The team observed 8 percent to 33 percent in energy savings from pump monitoring and irrigation optimization, with an average improvement in energy efficiency (energy savings for the same production level) of 13 percent across a variety of crops and geographies. Water use efficiency was improved by 9 percent. If this technology was installed for 20 percent of the 2.4 million acres cultivated in California for almond, pistachio, tomatoes, and alfalfa annual savings could be more than 66 gigawatt-hours of electricity and 120,000 acre-feet of water.