[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
Liaocheng city is located in the western plain of Shandong province. With fertile land and abundant water resources, it is one of the important major grain-producing areas in Shandong. The cultivated land area of the whole city is about 8 million mu (533,333.33 hectares), among which the planting area of grain crops accounts for more than 70 percent. Wheat and corn are the main grain crops.
Spring irrigation is a crucial part of agricultural production and is directly related to the summer grain harvest. Since December 2024, the State Grid Liaocheng Power Supply Company has carried out a "thorough and comprehensive" investigation and rectification of potential safety hazards in the power facilities of 136,000 motor-pumped wells across the city, and immediately identified and rectified 712 problems. At the same time, it sorted out the account ledgers and provided full guidance services for business expansion and power application for motor-pumped wells without power supply. A "green channel" for spring irrigation electricity consumption was opened, and exclusive customer managers were appointed. For newly added irrigation wells and temporary electricity consumption demands, the policy of "application on the same day, power connection on the same day" was implemented, and the online electricity application rate for business expansion and power application reached 100 percent. More than 800 people who manage grid went to the spring irrigation sites, distributed 53,000 copies of leaflets on safe electricity use for spring irrigation, and guided farmers to use irrigation equipment in a standardized manner. A total of 98 power supply stations each established a spring irrigation service team, equipped with 106 emergency power generation devices. For the equipment related to spring irrigation, the principle of "restore power first, then repair" was implemented to fully ensure reliable power supply during the spring irrigation period.
In addition, the company jointly launched a pilot project of "estimating water consumption based on electricity consumption" with the water resources department. By inferring water consumption through big data of electricity, it has effectively solved the problem of agricultural irrigation metering. "At that time, we collected 1,200 sets of sample data in 5,236 administrative villages and subdivided 15 types of coefficient models for different soils and crops," introduced Liu Kai from the Digital Department of State Grid Liaocheng Power Supply Company. The average coefficient of the whole city is 2.22 cubic meters per kilowatt-hour. The coefficient of wheat fields in sandy soil is as low as 1.8, while that of clay soil plots reaches 2.5, with an error rate controlled within 5 percent.
The promotion and application of the "estimating water consumption based on electricity consumption" model have not only effectively solved the problems of high installation costs and difficult maintenance of metering facilities for agricultural irrigation wells, but also improved the supervision efficiency and management level of underground water resources. Through accurate metering and real-time monitoring, agricultural water use has been more rationally allocated and utilized, reducing water resource waste and achieving the sustainable utilization of water resources. At the same time, the "estimating water consumption based on electricity consumption" model has also promoted the deep integration of agriculture with fields such as water resources, electricity and information technology, providing strong support for agricultural modernization.
[Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]
