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 Of interest: 1) I'm now Program Manager for the Agricultural
Pumping Efficiency Program (APEP). The APEP is funded by the Public Goods Charge
that appears on all investor-owned utility's bills (PG&E, SCE, SDG&E, SCG).
The budget to 12/31/05 totals some $9.2 million starting from initial funding in
September, 2002. THe program components include education, technical assistance,
subsidized pump efficiency tests, incentive rebates for pump retrofit/repair. I am
very proud of this program, especially the two Mobile Education Centers that have been
built and are now providing educational seminars state-wide. I basically developed
the proposal to CPUC, budgets, all policies and procedures, legal aspects, forms,
educational materials, and guided construction of the MECs so as to fulfill the promises
to the California Public Utilities Commission. I urge you to visit the web site at
www.pumpefficiency.org.2) I've stepped back as Program Manager for the Agricultural Peak Load Reduction Program at California State University, Fresno (CSU Fresno) to guide the implementation of the APEP. This Grant Program was authorized by urgency legislation passed in April 2001 as a response to the energy crisis in California. Overall Program management is by the California Energy Commission (CEC). I am administering some $11.7 million in available funds to help agriculture implement energy conservation procedures. This has been a major effort given the short time allowed for program development and implementation. I have helped develop program guidelines and application procedures, developed the database and tracking system at CSU Fresno, developed the contract language used to fund successful projects, implemented a pump testing program using 13 (to date) contract pump testers, and continue to receive, review (utilizing five consulting engineer groups), and accept/reject project proposals. Some $6 million dollars has been approved for grant payments as of 12/1/03. You can download a Program Description and Application Form at www.energy.ca.gov/ag. 3) Some time ago I stepped back from my role as manager of a project to develop a Rapid Seepage Assessment Vehicle for use in locating and quantifying seepage losses from canals and reservoirs. The principal instrument platform was to be a standard Spra-Coupe 3640. However, early trials used a flatbed truck with a utility crane. Electromagnetic inductance principles will be used for the measurements, geo-coded through GPS using a Trimble Ag 132. We will be using the Geonics EM31 for measurements from 10-20 feet deep but also added their EM38 (dual-dipole for simultaneous 3 and 6 feet readings) for shallower worek. I am proud of the fact that over $400,000 in funding has been obtained at CSU Fresno for various research projects utilizing this technology. Click here to go to a Project Page with pictures and more details. 4) The Action Plan for the Narromine Irrigation Scheme (Australian for
"District") has been finalized. The Scheme was applying for a second round
of funding as of about 2001 and there was hope to do some simple modeling to judge the
feasibility of adding a regulating reservoir to the system. The Scheme is located in
the Macquarie River Valley of New South Wales with headquarters in the town of Narromine.
The irrigation system evaluation team that I helped develop (the Measure Water to
Manage Water project) continues to work in the area. The project
page discusses the two main efforts in that area. |
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Summary - Peter Canessa is a registered Professional Engineer in California and holds a BS in Industrial Engineering and a MS in Irrigation and Drainage Engineering. He has 25 years of experience in the agricultural water and energy management field that includes:
665 Asilo |
 My logo consists of a rectangle of clay-red, representing the soil; an
interspersed pattern of blue, representing water within the soil; and a band of yellow at
top, representing sunlight on that soil. Soil, water, and energy from the sun are
the basic ingredients of successful agriculture. But successful modern
agriculture requires another input, modern management. The pattern of the blue color
is similar to the wetted soil under a trickle irrigation system. Trickle irrigation
is acknowledged to be one of the most effective methods for conservation of water (and by
extension the energy needed to pump that water) and fertilizer, as well as for control of
the growing environment. It is widely used all over the world in many different
forms, on many different crops. I was designing and installing fully-automatic
trickle irrigation as early as 1976 at Superior Farming in Bakersfield, CA. At that
time we were also using neutron probes, our own on-farm weather stations, and computers to
perform water-budget irrigation scheduling. The computers were used to design the
irrigation systems as well. The logo signifies my long experience and expertise in
agricultural water and energy management. |
I developed this site using MS FrontPage 2000. It is best viewed on a display with at least 800 x 600 (SVGA) resolution with at least 16 bit color using MS Internet Explorer 4.* or equivalent. Several of the Advisories and Tutorials use forms programmed with VBScript and Active-X components. I apologize if your computer equipment won't work with these pages.
© Copyright 1998-2004 - Peter Canessa, All Rights Reserved
Page last updated 08/31/04 -
Comments/Questions - Pcanessa@charter.net