2018 IEEE Rural Electric Power Conference

A Renewable Solution Approach for Center Pivot

Irrigation System
Vishwajit Roy Subrina Sultana Noureen Dr. Stephen Bayne Dr. Argenis Bilbao Dr. Michael
Dept. of ECE Dept. of ECE Dept. of ECE Dept. of ECE Giesselmann
Texas Tech University Texas Tech University Texas Tech University Texas Tech University Dept. of ECE
Lubbock,Texas,USA Lubbock,Texas,USA Lubbock,Texas,USA Lubbock,Texas ,USA Texas Tech University
vishwajit.roy@ttu.edu subrina.noureen@ttu.edu Stephen.bayne@ttu.edu Argenis.bilbao@ttu.edu Lubbock, Texas,USA

Abstract— In this present study a hybrid renewable energy system or tab as well as help to determine the time of irrigation with the
is proposed to optimize the load demand for Center Pivot Irrigation help of GPS, moisture sensors and GIS[2]. Recent statistics
System for remote cultivation areas in Lubbock, Texas. The energy shows that 80% of irrigation system are covered by center pivot
resources included in the study are solar photovoltaic and wind system [4]. From 2003 to 2010 total coverage area was increased
energy. For the ease of study, a 120-acre cultivable land area is 39% [4]. From this point of view the Centre Pivot Irrigation system
considered as model. Simulation and analysis of the load is has a significant impact on total irrigation system. For ease of
developed using HOMER (Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric
Renewable) software and the optimum use of renewable resources
Agricultural development several organizations have taken solar
is determined. A RT-LAB based model is also developed to based Centre Pivot Irrigation. As the wind speed is sufficient in
determine real time analysis of center Pivot load. As the impact of Lubbock, Texas area the addition of Wind power as well as solar is
wind is remarkable and solar irradiance is significant in Lubbock a focus of study to find out a feasible solution for Centre Pivot
area, the wind turbine and solar photovoltaic system is given Irrigation. A standard local data was set for analysis and the
priority for effective optimization. Using HOMER software and RT- different output from HOMER (Hybrid Optimization of Multiple
LAB based analysis of different combinations and multiple Energy Renewable) modeling Software developed by NREL
components are considered for simulation study. An optimal (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) was used for simulation
solution is proposed in the work by considering the renewable purpose. At the same time an OPAL-RT based real time simulation
energy resources as prime sources in Lubbock area for this
optimization method.
was done to observe system performance and various outputs.
Optimization and sensitivity analysis were done using HOMER.
Keywords— Hybrid, wind turbine, photovoltaic module, HOMER, The energy balanced calculation was done around the irrigation
Sensitivity analysis period and HOMER software provided different solutions.
I.INTRODUCTION
II. CENTER PIVOT IRRIGATION SYSTEM AND
Recent development of agriculture has introduced Centre Pivot STUDY AREA
Irrigation System. It is one of the most popular irrigation system
in USA and around the world. The sprinkler irrigation systems Modern agriculture is equipped with different machineries for
are either continuous move, self-propelled or center pivot. In better production. Every equipment consumes energy in a form of
early 1990 the introduction of variable rate control systems were electricity, diesel or other forms of fuel. Now a day, Centre Pivot
developed and later patented by McCann and Stark (1993)[1]. irrigation system has gained immense utilization in agricultural
Centre pivot irrigation system transports water around the fields. It contains a self-propelled technique which can go around
irrigation field in a specific pattern which covers the total area. the field based on a center. The propagation of Center Pivot system
At the same time, the radius of the machine is an important factor. is on electric drive. The sprinkler collects water from a water source
One of the main advantage of Center pivot system is that it can and sprinkles uniformly across the agricultural area. The total time
transport water in a long distance [2]. 2013 USDA Farm and for water sprinkle depends on several factors such as pump
Ranch Irrigation survey shows 3,980,081 acres under “Center capacity, size of area, water requirement, well capacity and
Pivot Irrigation System” [3]. Implementation of advanced distance. The travel speed of a Center Pivot system depends on
technology has given farmers the liberty to control the central water requirement of the field.
pivot operation with smart phone, computer
The application area of Center Pivot may be circular or square.
Using the circulation of the system a large area is covered. The
standard study area was based on 120 acre farmland of Lubbock,
Texas where irrigation water is supplied by Center Pivot Irrigation
system round the year. A USDA 2014 report shows that,
Fig. 1. Central Pivot Irrigation System

2153-3636/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 61

DOI 10.1109/REPC.2018.00018
consumption of energy is almost 12 to 16 percent of total cash Starting from 15th June of any year 150 days are available
expenses of rice, cotton production [5]. for a crop (Example: cotton in Lubbock area) for sprinkling 12
inches of water height. So within this 150 days if the pump supplies
The Clean Power Plan (CPP,August 2015) of Environmental 16 hrs /day, then the day required to cover the total irrigation area :
Protection Agency decided to reduce carbon emission by using Days required = 920.28/16hrs/day= 57.5 days
renewables, natural gas, with implications for energy production Using 57.5 days (8.2 weeks) we need to sprinkle for 12 " water
and consumption in agriculture.[5].Agricultural farms consume height. For weekly water capacity depends on 1.46" (12"/8.2 weeks)
electricity in different application such as irrigation water water per week~1.5 inch water per week.
pumping, air circulation and ventilation in storage, heating and
drying. From the U.S. Energy Information Administration D. Pump requirement
(Tyson, Brown, and Harnish, 2014) report, agricultural farms are
stakeholders of significant amount of industrial electricity. On The following data acquired from a cotton field of Lubbock, Texas
the other hand, farmers need to pay high cost for connecting to to determine the energy requirement of an irrigation field.
grid to feed electricity for the irrigation system [5]. For this study
Table 1: Total load of an irrigation field
LEPA (Low Energy Precision Application) of Center Pivot
irrigation was considered for its high efficiency which ranges Motor used TDH=Well1 WHP Hours KWH
between 80% - 95% (TWDB 2004). Pumping motors total
energy consumption 31433.458 6350.1934 840 113541.46

III. STRUCTURE AND DESIGNING A

The total head required (THD) can be calculated using following
CENTER PIVOT SYSTEM
formula:
A.Center Pivot area THD = Pumping lift + elevation change + operating pressure +
The length of Center Pivot system depends on pipeline friction losses.
with sprinkler nozzle and end gun. The end gun for sprinkling The water horse power (WHP) is converted from THD using the
water is at the end of center pivot system. The end gun can following formula [7]:
sprinkle the last part of the field which may cover 100 feet more. WHP = (Pumping Rate x THD)/3960
To determine the total area coverage the following equation 1 is Total electricity in KWH:
used [6]: Daily electricity use = (WHP x daily hours of
  operation)/performance criteria
Irrigation area covered in acre = (1)
 Performance criteria: 1 hp = 0.7457 kW
Where R=Radius of field including end gun. Here, 7-tower 1300  
feet system was considered. Irrigation area covered in total 120 Water horsepower,  = (3)

acres. Where,
WHP = Water Horsepower,
Q = Flow Rate or Discharge,
B. One inch water application time measurement
H = Total Head.
The yield of well of Lubbock area ranges from 190-950
Based on the above data 460 volt 3 phase 15 HP motor was
gpm (gallon per minute) which has a median of 525 gpm. One of
considered for pump drive in Simulink design. For center pivot
the most important factors in Center Pivot design is the capability
rotation 2.5 HP 460 volt 3 phase motor was considered.
of system to deliver peak water requirement of crop. Pumping
rate considered for wells in this study was 800gpm. To calculate
1" height water around the total 120 acre area the application time
IV.SOLAR AND WIND RESOURCE
is calculated using following formulae [6]:
.. For analysis, the potential energy data for average solar radiation
.
 and wind speed of Lubbock, Texas area were considered. The data
= (2)
 source is considered as National Renewable Energy Lab database.
The following data were derived from the HOMER software for
Where:
Monthly Average Solar Global Horizontal Index (GHI) for
T = Time to complete a cycle while applying 1" (hrs)
A = Irrigated Area (acres) Lubbock area (33.5779° N, 101.8552° W). The Daily radiation
Q = Flow rate at the pivot (gpm) varies from 2.8 to 7.0 kWh/m2/day.
P = Percent of full circle being irrigated (as a decimal)
E = Irrigation efficiency (as a decimal)
Considering 120 acre area, with a flow rate 800 gpm and
irrigation efficiency 90%,the time required for 1” water height is
76.69 hr.
Total time to cover 12" of water as required around the field is
:12x76.69=920.28 hrs

C. Irrigation per day

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 The major focus of the HOMER software analysis was to find the
optimized energy consumption after input of the data and to find
different solutions including different available components. Based
on the above data Wind turbine and PV module were considered;
and at the same time, Diesel Generator and battery storage were
considered as compensating sources to meet up the demand of the
desired system design.

V. IRRIGATION FIELD DATA FOR LOAD

ANALYSIS
The crop water requirement CWR (Irrigation demand) is
calculated from historic precipitation data. A total of fifteen models
Fig. 2. Average solar irradiance data at Lubbock
were created using MODFLOW computer program. Later total
Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is a measurement of solar
head requirement (THD) was converted to water horse power
resource which can be found on a flat-plate oriented horizontal to
(WHP).
the earth’s surface [8]. For wind speed, data were considered
from National Renewable Energy Lab database where the
average wind speed vary from 5.8 to 7.4 m/s at 50m Anemometer
height. Average wind power is determined by

 =  ! "  (4)

Where,  is the air density (=l.225 kg/m3), R is the blade length
and V is the wind speed [9].

Fig. 4. Load scenario around irrigation period

VI. CONSIDERATION PARAMETERS TO

DRIVE A PUMP OF IRRIGATION FIELD
The 120 acre 1300 feet radius Central pivot system has seven
number of towers to cover the total field. For load analysis data
collected from one crop period (June to November) was considered.
Data available from the USDA National Agricultural Statistics
Survey census for 2013 shows that 85,822 irrigation pumps are
deployed [10]. The average kWh to drive the pumping motor is
Fig. 3. Average wind speed data at Lubbock from HOMER derived from TDH (Total Dynamic Head) of well. The average
kWh profile of the irrigation period is given in Table 3.
Table 2: Solar and wind data of Lubbock, Texas
Table 3: Average kWh required for 120 acre irrigation field
Month Monthly Average Global Horizontal Monthly
Irradiance(GHI) Data Average Month June July August September October November
Wind speed Average 3252 3219 3228.5 3245.89 3242.9 3263.734
data kWh/day .162 .293 59 23
Clearness Daily Radiation Average
Index (kWh/m2/day) (m/s)

0.597 3.180 6.400 Pivot system pumps are operated on 480V. Electrical usage depends
January
0.567 3.760 6.680 on system length, number of towers, gallons per minute of water
February
and application rate. An electric center pivot system operates on a
0.626 5.250 7.420
March timer with the end tower tied directly to that timer. When the
0.641 6.430 7.450 application is set at the pivot point the end tower cycles on and off
April
May
0.615 6.830 7.020 with that timer. The inside towers will cycle only when they are
0.614 7.070 6.700 required, based on the movement of the tower on its outboard side.
June For example, a 7 tower 1300 feet system with 400 gpm takes 137.5
0.616 6.950 6.170
July hours to put on 1” of water on 120 acres. To observe the
0.597 6.210 5.810 performance of a motor a SIMULINK and OPAL-RTOPAL-RT
August
0.592 50280 6.040 based model was developed.
September
0.640 40560 6.250
October
0.614 3.440 6.420
November
0.576 2.830 6.330
December

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 Table: 4 Variables for HOMER simulation

Converter 1 kWh LA PV size Wind Generator

capacity(kw) Strings (kw) turbine Capacity
Battery Quantity
(12v)
1 1 25 1 0
5 2 50 2 6400
Fig. 5. Simulink based model to drive 15HP pump 10 3 75 3
15 5 100 4
20 6 150 5

VIIII.OUTPUT FROM SIMULATION

A. Flat plate PV output

HOMER Renewable Energy Optimizer helps to reduce the size of

PV array.In this case study, photovoltaic solar panel was considered
and simulation was done on incremental panels.

Fig. 6. Torque characteristic of 15 HP motor The power generated from PV module can be described as [12]
E=A × I × η × N (5)
where, A is area of module, I stands for solar radiation, η for
efficiency and N is for number of solar modules.
VII.CONSIDERATION OF HYBRID SOURCES The result shows the output power 1 kW solar panel as below.
Figure 5 show the result of Solar Photovoltaic annual output.
The load analysis was done using HOMER simulation to find the Table 5: Annual Solar PV output
feasible solution to drive the Center Pivot system. The schematic
of the model developed using HOMER software is given below: Quantity Value Units
Homer simulation software is capable to simulate and find Rated Capacity 10 kw
optimized solution using any combination of wind, PV, hydro, Mean Output 1.94 Kw
biomass ,generator, battery serving for thermal or electrical Mean Output 46.5 Kw/d
loads.[11].2860 simulations were simulated and out of them 1440 Capacity Factor 19.4 %
Total Production 16961 KWh/yr
were feasible.

Fig. 8. PV annual power output

B. Wind Turbine
Fig. 7. Hybrid power solution model From the analysis the following output was obtained from
GENERIC 3 kW WIND TURBINE.
Using a set of variables HOMER perform simulation. All Table 6: Annual output from Wind Turbine
possible combinations are done using these variables .In this
Quantity Value Units
study the variables considered for simulations are given below:
Total Rated Capacity 1.00 kW
Mean Output .137 kW
Capacity Factor 13.7 %
Total Production 1197 kWh/yr

Table 2: Annual output from Wind Turbine

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 The wind turbine annual output also available from everyday IX.SIMULATION OUTPUT
graph which shows average generation of 365 days. The simulation output of the model is given in
Table 9. From the simulation it was observed that the lowest cost of
energy $ 0.52 is obtained using wind and DG combination. The
lowest net present cost $174,615.00 was also available. But the
operating cost is higher in this model which is $12849.00. To
minimize the operating cost the wind-solar-DG model is preferable
which has operating cost $11,130.00. In case of wind -solar-DG
model the cost of energy is little bit higher by $0.03 which is 0.55.
At the same time the Net present cost will also increase.

Fig. 9.Wind turbine annual power output Table 9: Comparison of simulation outputs

C. Diesel Generator Model Net Operating Cost of Fuel

Fuel consumption of DG depends of power output which can be description present cost ($) energy($) cost
expressed as [14] cost ($) ($/yr)
Fd = a.Pd +b.Pdrated (6) Wind-DG- 174,615.00 12,849.00 0.520 9,281.00
Where Pdrated stands for rated power of DG , Pd stands for output Converter
power of DG nad a,b are coefficients which can be derived from Wind-DG- 175,255.00 12,846.00 0.522 9,280.00
consumption curve. Battery-
Converter
From simulation, the 6400 kW Generator is considered for optimum PV- Wind-DG- 184,753.00 11,130.00 0.550 7,543.00
fuel cost and output is shown below. Battery-
Table 7: Annual output from Generator Converter
Quantity Value Units PV- Wind-DG- 189,419.00 11,665.00 0.564 8,004.00
Converter
Hours of Operation 8117 hrs/yr
No of Starts 468 Starts/yr
Operation Life 1.85 yr
Capacity Factor 35.3 %
X. CONCLUSION
Mean Electrical Output 2.36 kw The objective of the study was to analyze the feasibility of irrigation
Max Electrical output 5.51 kw for center pivot system of 120 acre area irrigation of remote
locations in Lubbock. The data available from National Renewable
Energy Lab database were considered. After completion of
simulation the lowest energy cost was found as $0.520/kWh with
lowest NPC (net present cost) as $174,615.00 with implementation
of wind Diesel Generator model. The return of investment from the
model is 49%. On the other hand, the internal rate of return is
55.6%. The Renewable output is 39.2% of total generation. Four
sensitivity analyses introduce four different optimization cases.
Fig.10. Diesel Generator annual power output Consideration of PV module is also important for simulation. In
case of future Diesel fuel price hike, the solution of PV-Wind -DG
can be taken for safety. The inclusion of PV module shows
D. Storage device
Generic 1 kw Lead Acid battery was used for simulation and the reduction of CO2 emission by 23%. Considering the fact that wind
following output for one year is obtained. power generation is better in all areas of Texas, the Wind-DG model
is feasible for present study. This is a preliminary study for center
Table 8: Annual output from Battery set pivot system irrigation solution. Several limitations can be
Quantity Value Units considered for further study like ground -covering sprinkler system
Average energy Cost 0.0 $/KWh development, soil moisturize holding capability. Further cost
Energy In 78.2 KWh/yr reduction study can be done on considering availability of surface
Energy Out 62.6 KWh/yr water which may reduce the cost of energy/kWh of the system.
Storage Depletion 0 KWh/yr
Losses 15.6 KWh/yr REFRENCES
Annual Throughput 70.0 KWh/yr
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