Irrigation project in India is powered by BAUER technology

In India, a country with a total population of over one billion, the food sector has enormous strategic importance. Agricultural production depends heavily on artificial irrigation systems. The majority of precipitation in the country falls during the monsoon season, so that the volume and heaviness of the rain is hard to forecast. To mitigate this dependency, the Indian government is investing in cross-regional irrigation programmes using the water from major rivers, which is stored centrally and distributed according to need. A flagship project is the Jalayagnam irrigation scheme in the state of Andhra Pradesh, where large-scale compressors from BAUER are used at strategic points to ensure energy-efficient distribution of water reserves. 

In the Pranahita-Chevella Lift Irrigation Scheme, water from a tributary of the Godavari River is diverted and pumped or ‘lifted’ to a central reservoir located at a higher altitude; this difference in altitude creates the necessary pumping head that allow the water to flow naturally down to the region for irrigation through a network of canals. The high-altitude reservoir is filled using high-performance pumps. As these pumps are completely submerged, the resistance of the water which surrounds them causes their energy consumption to soar when they are started up.

This is where BAUER’s compressors come in. BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) – the operator of the scheme – has chosen to reduce power consumption by using high-pressure compressed air. When the pumps are started, the compressed air is blown under them to reduce startup resistance caused by the pressure of the water on the pumps. This solution dramatically increases the efficiency of the pumps, resulting in huge energy savings. Once the pumps have reached their operating speed, the air is recompressed and stored. 13 large-scale BAUER B 28.3-110 compressors are in operation to generate the enormous volumes of air required, each compressing 6 cubic metres of air per minute to a pressure of 60 bar. Given the success of the scheme, Pune-based BAUER KOMPRESSOREN INDIA and BHEL have agreed to collaborate closely on further projects in future.