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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has confirmed that the Energy Efficiency in Dairy Sector pilot scheme is due to reopen in May 2018. The previous pilot scheme was opened at the Ploughing last September, with between 50 and 80 farmers benefitting from grant aid, according to Emer Burton from the SEAI, who was speaking at the IFA Smart Farming conference on Tuesday.
The SEAI has confirmed that the 2018 scheme will be similar to the 2017 scheme, with full details available in May 2018.
The scheme is aimed at getting dairy farmers to reduce their energy costs associated with vacuum pumps on milking machines.
“It is difficult to justify a farmer going out and replacing their current system on the energy savings alone on a small farm, but where a replacement is needed anyway then farmers should look towards the scheme,” according to Emer.
Vacuum pumps
The 2017 scheme allowed for a variable speed drive (VSD) to be retrofitted to the vacuum pumps to reduce electricity consumption of the pump by 60%, according to Teagasc and the SEAI.
Vacuum pumps will generally run at full speed when they are installed in a general installation. However, the addition of the VSD means the speed of the vacuum pump motor will adjust, as full power will not always be needed at low flows. A sensor is also added to the main airline to measure the vacuum in the milking machine and the VSD that controls the speed of the motor will maintain the desired vacuum level.
Grant aid of 50% was available for the retrofitting of these VSD pumps. A single phase system is eligible for a maximum grant of €4,500, excluding VAT, while a three-phase system can receive a maximum grant aid of €3,000.
Grant aid is also available for a variable speed drive milk pump. The addition of a VSD milk pump has the potential to reduce the total farm energy costs by approximately 5% when used in conjunction with a plate cooler, according to the SEAI.
For the retrofit of the VSD milk pump farmers are eligible for a grant aid of 50% to a maximum of €1,000, excluding VAT. In the 2017 scheme a smart meter was required to be included with either of the investments above and this is expected to be the same for the 2018 scheme.
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