Comparative study of energy costs in irrigation according to the New Brazilian electricity tariffmodel

Abstract

The tariffflags on Brazil came into force in January 2015, applied to all electrical distribution agents of the national interconnected system (SIN) and all final consumers are being charged for this new model. Given this, the cost of electricity in irrigation suffered representative additions involving searches of alternatives, such as the use of diesel engines. This study aimed to analyze the costs and the total annual costs of pumping with diesel and electric operation in 3 regions of Brazil, considering the application of the tariffflags. We concluded that the Southeast region (SE) features an hourly cost of electricity above the Central-West (CO) and the Northeast (NE) regions at any adopted tariff, regardless of the time of pumping and the use of diesel engines in irrigation is feasible in terms of distances from the electrical grid that can range from 2.8 to 72.4 km, the first being the most favorable condition in the Southeast with the operation of 4 months per year with fertirrigation, in conventional tariffand red flag is the less favorable in the Northeast with 10 months/year operation with/without fertirrigation, in bohemia blue and green flag tariff.