Many collective irrigation systems have been operating for decades, facing high degradation of existing infrastructures and huge water-energy efficiency problems. Predominantly composed of open canals, they have been partially or entirely converted into pressurised pipe systems, implying a considerable increase in energy consumption and operation and maintenance costs. Simple, easy-to-use, and comprehensive approaches for energy efficiency assessment in collective irrigation systems are needed for diagnosis and assisting decision-making on implementing adequate improvement measures. This research proposes and demonstrates an innovative approach based on the water and energy balances and performance indicators to assess the effect of water losses, network layout and operation, energy recovery, and equipment on energy efficiency. A novel methodology for energy balance calculation is proposed for open canal, pressurised and combined systems. The application to a real-life open canal system and network areas allowed the identification of efficiency problems mainly due to water losses in canals, followed by the dissipated energy in friction losses. Less critical are pumping and manoeuvring equipment inefficiencies. Also, a considerable excess of gravity energy is recovered in hydropower plants. In raising pipe systems, in which shaft input energy predominates and costs for pumping play a key role, surplus and dissipated energy in friction losses are the most relevant issues. Significant energy is lost in the water conveyance and distribution in both systems. Consequently, the potential to improve energy efficiency through water loss management, network layout, and operation improvement, besides pumping and manoeuvring equipment replacement, is considerable.

许多集体灌溉系统已经运行了几十年，面临着现有基础设施的严重退化和巨大的水能效率问题。它们主要由明渠组成，但已部分或全部改造成加压管道系统，这意味着能源消耗和运营维护成本大幅增加。需要简单、易于使用且全面的集体灌溉系统能源效率评估方法来诊断和协助决策以实施适当的改进措施。这项研究提出并展示了一种基于水和能源平衡以及绩效指标的创新方法，以评估水损失、网络布局和运营、能源回收以及设备对能源效率的影响。提出了一种用于明渠、加压和组合系统的能量平衡计算的新方法。在现实生活中的开放运河系统和网络区域的应用中，可以识别效率问题，主要是由于运河中的水损失，其次是摩擦损失中的耗散能量。不太重要的是泵送和操纵设备效率低下。此外，水力发电厂还回收了大量多余的重力能。在提升管道系统中，轴输入能量占主导地位，泵送成本起着关键作用，摩擦损失中的剩余能量和耗散能量是最相关的问题。这两个系统的输水和分配过程中都会损失大量能量。因此，除了泵送和操纵设备更换之外，通过水损管理、网络布局和运营改进来提高能源效率的潜力是巨大的。