High-Efficiency ESP Systems Save Electricity and Lower OPEX

ESPs provide reliable artificial lift for a broad range of flow rates and well conditions. When a downhole system runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, the electricity bill can be significant. Electricity costs reduce profits, particularly for operators that run hundreds of ESPs or that must make regular trips to refuel onsite generators.

Heat is the Enemy

A full 61% of the power consumed in a conventional ESP system is lost to heat. Only 39% of the power is used to actually produce hydrocarbons. This is consistent across the industry in conventional ESPs running a three-phase, two-pole, oil-filled induction motor driving a multistage centrifugal pump. The pump alone is responsible for losing 29% of all electricity to heat, and the motor loses 13%. 

Losing 61% of the electricity you buy to heat is unacceptable. Novomet attacked the two biggest energy wasting components in an ESP—the pump and the motor—to develop the PowerSave high-efficiency system.

Gain Efficiency with Aerospace-Inspired Pump Geometries

We started by designing an energy-efficient, high-speed pump that would operate at higher RPMs. Using powder metallurgy, we manufacture parts with a level of precision that is not possible using industry-standard sand-cast manufacturing. This enabled us to redesign the pump using new geometries, and to reduce the overall pump length to one-third its previous size—while maintaining pump capacity. Advanced pump stage geometries and an upgrade in materials combined with the shorter pump length to dramatically reduce heat and wasted electricity.

Increase Performance with a Reliable Permanent Magnet Motor

The next step was the motor. Typical induction motors use motor windings to create magnetic induction. Having to create this induction causes heat, wasting electromagnetic energy. So we designed and developed a permanent magnet motor that eliminates the need for an induction rotor. The PMM rotor uses rare-earth alloy magnets with two ports where north and south poles interlace to reduce the power needed to turn the rotor. Stator laminations are made from proprietary Novomet material, further improving the magnetic field. As with the pump, PowerSave permanent magnet motors are shorter and lighter than induction motors and generate more horsepower per foot. The result is a lightweight, powerful motor that runs cooler and uses less electricity.

The Most Efficient Electricity is the Electricity You Don't Have to Use

The high-speed pump and permanent magnet motor combine to reduce ESP power consumption by up to 50% compared to old and inefficient ESPs. Compared to supposed high-efficiency ESP systems from big-name service providers, you can expect to use 25–30% less electricty to run a Novomet ESP every month.

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