Economic and Conservation Evaluation of Capital Renovation Projects: Brownsville Irrigation District – 72" and 54" Pipeline Replacing Main Canal – Preliminary

Initial construction costs and net annual changes in operating and maintenance expenses are identified for a single-component capital renovation project proposed by Brownsville Irrigation District to the North American Development Bank (NADB) and Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). The proposed project involves constructing a 72" and 54" pipeline to replace 2.29 miles of the “Main Canal.” Both nominal and real estimates of water and energy savings and expected economic and financial costs of those savings are identified throughout the anticipated 49-year useful life for the proposed project. Sensitivity results for both the cost of water savings and cost of energy savings are presented for several important parameters.

Annual water and energy savings forthcoming from the total project are estimated, using amortization procedures, to be 1,844 ac-ft of water per year and 313,797,977 BTUs (91,969 kwh) of energy per year. The calculated economic and financial cost of water savings is estimated to be $24.70 per ac-ft. The calculated economic and financial cost of energy savings is estimated at $0.0001740 per BTU ($0.594 per kwh).

In addition, expected real (rather than nominal) values are indicated for the Bureau of Reclamation’s three principal evaluation measures specified in the United States Public Law 106-576 legislation. The initial construction cost per ac-ft of water savings measure is $56.74 per ac-ft of water savings. The initial construction cost per BTU (kwh) of energy savings measure is $0.0003335 per BTU ($1.138 per kwh). The ratio of initial construction costs per dollar of total annual economic savings is estimated to be -1.46.