TrustPower had recently completed its first irrigation investment which it hoped would be the first of several.
The initial investment involved pumping relatively small quantities of water from the Rakaia River at a cost of about $14 million.
The company's irrigation plans could potentially irrigate 80,000ha of farmland, Mr Young said yesterday.
He estimated the initial rate of return of all the irrigation projects was in the 14% to 16% range.
With the total investment potentially as high as $400 million, it was estimated the value lift from the irrigation was in the order of between 10c per share to 30c per share.
"While the potential is significant, the hurdles to overcome include getting the water conservation order for the Rakaia River changed, getting buy-in from local farmers that its proposals are the best available for the farmers dealing with potential land-use changes.
"We do not see these issues as insurmountable."
One of the main hurdles was having the conservation order changed to allow Lake Coleridge to be used for irrigation purposes, he said.
Water quality and water use were hot topics in Canterbury so it would take time to resolve all the issues.
In addition, TrustPower had a "strong pipeline" of projects, with about 800MW of consented projects from which to choose. If all the projects were built, it would more than double TrustPower's current generation, Mr Young said.
TrustPower's irrigation scheme was the equivalent of the electricity grid.
Farmers needed to also fund on-farm distribution and storage systems. That had an impact on take-up within the Barhill-Chertsey (Mid Canterbury) irrigation scheme area but expectations were that as farmers saw their neighbours benefiting from irrigation, take-up would improve, he said.
The benefits of reliable irrigation were well understood and TrustPower had the advantage of having control of the only natural and existing storage facility in the region.
"The natural advantage means that if large-scale stored irrigation ever gets off the ground, TrustPower's option is the only realistic option available."
