This document summarizes a study on flexible energy consumption on New Zealand farms. It discusses how dairy farming and irrigation are large users of electricity. Interviews with farmers found low energy literacy and priorities elsewhere than saving energy. Barriers to demand response include infrastructure upgrades being costly over few customers. Next steps are obtaining data from case studies of Maori trust farms and a South Island irrigation case study.

1. Flexible Energy Consumption on NZ Farms
A Socio-Technical Study
Photo Credit : Dave Pearce
Jefferson Dew, PhD Candidate, Centre for Sustainability
Supervisors: Dr Janet Stephenson, Dr Sara Walton, and Dr Michael Jack
OERC Symposium 23 November 2017

2. Overview
• NSC – Science for Technological Innovation
• Energy in Farming
• Dairy and Irrigation
• Rural electricity issues
• Socio-Technical Research
• Interviews
• Next steps
Photo Credit : Dave Pearce

3. Science for Technological Innovation
• Objective: To enhance the capacity of New Zealand to
use physical and engineering sciences for economic
growth
• Callaghan Innovation with all 8 Universities, 3 Crown
Research Agencies & Lincoln Agritech
• Smart Services Portfolio - Using data to do business
better
• Focus on primary and industrial sectors
• Contestable funding available

4. Energy use in Farming Coal LPG Petrol
Diesel
Natural Gas
Geother…
Electricity
Energy Consumption from
Agriculture 2016 (MBIE)
• Between 4-5% of total energy use annually
• Overall electricity demand flat
• Agriculture growing both for Diesel and
Electricity use
• Diesel almost all for portable equipment,
Electricity almost all for stationary
equipment
• Dairy is the largest Electricity user
• 47% increase in electricity use 2011-2016
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
Dairy Cattle Farming Non-Dairy Agriculture Dairy Product
Manufacturing
Energy End Use By Fuel 2015 (EECA)

5. Dairy and Irrigation
• 49% Irrigable land used for dairy (2012)
• Irrigation expanding with 19% increase in
area for Canterbury 2010-15 (Stats NZ)
• Summer electricity demand for milking and
irrigation
• Aligned daily operations on farms in
clusters
• New data available soon from 2017 Ag
Census Photo Credit : Dave Pearce

10. Timelapse

13. Electricity Demand
Population:
Ashburton – 31041
Hamilton – 156800

14. Rural Electricity Issues
• Long lines
• Upgrades ahead of schedule costly
• Few customers to spread costs over
• Security of supply
• Milk chilling regulations
• Value of flexible demand increases with
dispersion
Photo Credit : Dave Pearce

15. Solutions
• New Infrastructure?
• Batteries?
• Energy Efficiency?
• Backup Generators?
• On-site generation?
• Demand Response?
• Technology requires a user and an owner
Photo Credit : Dave Pearce

16. Socio-Technical Research
Stephenson et al. 2016
• To investigate the options, barriers and
opportunities for demand response in
the farming sector within the broader
context of disruptive change within
energy and agricultural systems.
• To understand and reduce barriers to
adoption of demand response strategies
through socio-technical approaches

17. Research questions
With a particular focus on energy use in irrigation …
• What is the technical feasibility and scale of opportunity for demand
response in the farming sector?
• What are the perceptions of farmers, irrigation sector and electricity
sector stakeholders regarding barriers and benefits of demand
response?
• What social, economic and technical factors are constraining farmers
from engaging in demand response?
• How can these barriers be overcome?

18. Preliminary Interview Findings
• Energy literacy low
• Low priorities - not core business
• Why spend money saving energy when more feed or another
cow could give the same return?
• Hydro-generators want irrigators as retail customers
• Generation constrained by energy rather than power
• Expectation from farmers that they would be more flexible than
factories
• Precision agriculture the next revolution
• Pumps mostly 20-40kW, Some up to 120kW
• Water much more tangible than energy
Photo Credit : Dave Pearce

19. Next steps
• Data obtained from one of the case studies
• Maori trust owned-operated farms in Waikato
• South Island irrigation case study to be confirmed
• NZ Social Statistics Network course this month

20. Thanks
Electricity consumption by sector (MBIE, 2017)