The Irrigation Hardware Maintenance and Upgrades UES measures address savings opportunities from improved maintenance of hand lines, wheel lines, center pivots, and linear moves and from upgrades of center pivots and linear moves. All of the measure applications result in reductions in water demand, which in turn reduce pumping energy required to meet that demand.
The Maintenance measure contains estimates of savings from improved maintenance practices regarding the repair of pipes and the replacement of sprinkler heads, nozzles, pressure regulators, gaskets, drain valves, and levelers. The baseline for this measure is the typical leakage rates and uniformity of distribution observed in the population of irrigation systems. It is assumed that typical maintenance practice is to replace hardware components well past the point at which these components start to leak and/or operate outside of their design parameters. The efficient case for these measures is the leakage rates and uniformity of well-maintained systems where components are replaced more frequently than in the baseline.
The Upgrade measure contains estimates of savings from upgrades of center pivot and linear move irrigation systems that reduce evaporative and wind-drift water losses. Three upgrades are considered: from high pressure impact sprinklers to mid-elevation spray application (MESA); from high pressure impact sprinklers to low-elevation spray application (LESA), low energy precision application (LEPA), or mobile drip irrigation (MDI); and from MESA to LESA, LEPA, or MDI. The upgrade measure provides savings estimates from reduce water demand. Additional savings are possible from reducing the pressure on the irrigation system if this pressure reduction is done efficiently (e.g., VFD or impeller trim).