2022 23 rd International Middle East Power Systems Conference (MEPCON),

Kafrelshiekh University, Egypt 13-15 December 2022

Saving Energy with Automated Multi Variable

Speed Drives Pumping System
Hamdy Ahmed Ashour
Dept. of Electrical and Control Engineering
Arab Academy for Science and Technolog
Alexandria, Egypt
hamdy135@gmail.com

Abstract— Utilization of variable speed drive has been automated system structure. This paper is organized into
recently recommended as an excellent candidate for energy introduction, effect of variable speed drive operation,
saving. This paper discusses the potential of such technology in proposed experimental setup, proposed flow chart,
recent automated multi-pumps water system. The paper simulation analysis, experimental validation and occlusions.
proposes a full smart automated setup of three-pumps
operated boosting station based on programmable logic
controller (PLC) with suitable human machine interface (HMI)
and corresponding industrial communication protocols.
Proposed system performance has been simulated, using
Simulink/Matlab software package, for two different operation
schemes. Experimental setup has been implemented, based on
Siemens Simatic S7 components and software. The obtained
simulation and experimental results showed the effectiveness of (a) Typical arrangement
the proposal for smart automated operation with energy saving
opportunities; particularly for variable flow operation
conditions.

Keywords— Automation, Booster Pumps, Energy, Multi

Motors, PLC, SCADA, VSD

I. INTRODUCTION
Single pump with single motor can be utilized in some
applications including domestic, commercial buildings and
also within simple industry applications [1]. The overall cost
could be low but only for low power ratings with possible
low performance requirements [2]. In case of redundancy (b) Typical characteristics
requirements, typical full setup with full ratings and cost Fig.1. Parallel operation of similar multi pumps
should be included. A multi pumps boosting [3] unit (could
be portable) can be also utilized to increase the pressure of
the fluid in order to achieve sufficient flow to the consumer.
It could be very beneficial in domestic and commercial
higher buildings and also can be used in industrial
applications including heating/cooling process, mining
oil/gas, firefighting and Etc. This configuration (is also
named as multi stages) could have two or more pumps
installed in two different arrangements: (a) Typical arrangement

A. Parallel for higher flow rates (Q) applications

(Fig.1)
B. Series for higher head (H) applications (Fig.2)
For centrifugal pump, it should not be operated until
water is existed in its intake side; else damage could be
happened to the pump impeller. This is more critical in case
of series connected pumps, hence bypass valves and also
sequential operation of each pump should be considered.
Hence in most cases, parallel operated pumps could be
preferable.
The main contribution of this paper is to theoretically
investigate and experimentally validate the effect of two
(b) Typical characteristics
different control strategies on multi motor-pump boosting
unit performance and energy reduction, using smart Fig.2. Series operation of similar multi pumps

978-1-6654-6363-8/22/#31.00© 2022 IEEE

 II. EFFECT OF VARIABLE SPEED OPERATION
Variable speed drive has been introduced as a good
option for saving energy in may applications including;
cooling tower system [4], mine cooling [5], water stations
[6]–[7] and also with performance enhancement based on
useful advanced control algorithms [8]–[11].
With recent technology of variable speed drive operation,
many advantages can be obtained such as:
1. Reduce possible water hammer and fatigues effect due to
soft starting/stopping facilities
2. Allow the motor to not always operates at its full load
speed but at different speed related to the required flow rate
Fig.3. Effect of variable speed on required power for variable flow
3. This could reduce energy consumption up to 50% operation program flow chart
particularly if the required flow rate is always changing (as From these equations, it is very clear that variable speed
depicted in Figure 3 which compares between utilization of operation could lead to higher reduction of the required
positioner valve and VSD flow control) power provided for variable flow or variable head operation
4. Running cost tariffs and maintenance can be reduced, modes.
hence the initial cost can be covered with minimum
payback (return of investment) period. III. THE PROPOSED SETUP
The overall setup hardware configuration and software
Also the following equations can be introduced;
programming has been chosen and carried out based on
Flow Speed
= (1) Siemens Simatic S7 family, while the overall experimentally
Flow Speed implemented system smart architecture is illustrated in Fig.4,
Head Speed as it mainly consists of: -
= (2)
Head Speed
 Three 3ph induction motor operated pumps
Speed
= (3)  Three Micromaster 440 variable speed drives
Speed
Also for any motor operated pump;  One S7-300 programmable logic controller
∗ ∗ ∗
= . ∗
(4)  One TP177 touch scream as human machine interface
= (5)  One Personal computer including Sematic S7 and WinCC
∗
flexible software
= (6)
= (7)  One analog sensor from 0 – 10 V

η% = *100 (8)  Thee digital switches for modes selections

Where: P is the pump power (kW), Q is the flow rate  Three digital operated lamps for modes indications
(m3/h), ρ is the fluid density rate (kg/m3), g is the gravity  An open bus networking Profibus protocol with different
(9.8 m/s2). H is the head (m), Nis the operating speed (rpm), drop points and address
T is the operating torque (Nm),  is the angular velocity
 A Converter USB/Profibus for PC networking
(rad/s), and η is the motor operated pump efficiency.

Fig.4. Overall hierarchy of the implemented experimental setup

 IV. THE PROPOSED OPERATION FLOW CHART It should be noted that the second mode of operation,
The proposed control and operation program flow chart is when be compared to the first mode of operation, is
shown in fig.5, for the utilized three similar motor-pump smoothly controlling the flow without any need of multi
sets. The system can be utilized to provide two control starting and stopping of any pump with possible equal life
techniques (pressure or flow) based on the corresponding time of all pumps; but with possible total lower efficiency
feedback signal (pressure or flow sensor respectively) and and maintenance reliability as all pumps are always running
according to the system application requirements. with partially loaded conditions.

As seen in Fig.5, two different modes of operation to V. SIMULATION A NALYSIS

define the share of each pump can be implemented; Simulation model of the proposed setup has been
including: - completely developed using Simulink / Matlab software
Mode (1) - Sequence Operation of Each Pump program. The rated values for each set are based on
commercial available pump set of: Power: 4kW, Speed: 1500
For this mode of operation each pump sharing is rpm Flow: 60m3/s and Head: 25m. The model simulation
individually defined based on the following conditions: - results have been obtained under the two different operating
modes and depicted in figures 6, 7, 8 and 9 respectively.
• If the flow analog required signal is lower than the 33%,
only the 1st set is running with variable speed to control By comparing results obtained for Mode 1 in Figs.6 and
the flow. 7 while Mode 2 in Fig.8 and 9 (for total rated values have
been taken as 100%), results as approximate percentage
• If the flow analog required signal is lower than the 66%,
values can be summarized and listed as in Table 1 and Table
then the 1st set is running at full load and only the 2nd set
is running with variable speed to control the flow. 2 respectively. From Tables 1 and 2 it is clear that variable
speed drives operation (for the two proposed modes of
• If the flow error is lower than the 100%, then both the 1st operation) can effectively save energy during lower speed
and the 2nd sets are running at full load and the 3rd set is values. It can be also seen that Mode 2 can save more energy
running with variable speed to control the flow. as each drive will be always operating with lower speeds in
all regions; unlike Mode 1 where Pump1 only saves power if
required signal is > 33% while Pump2 only saves power if
Mode (2) – Simultaneous Operation of All Pumps required signal is > 66%. It should be noted that the possible
lower efficiency of pump + motor set with lower speed
This mode is simply achieved by equally sharing the operation should be reconsider for more accurate comparison
required flow, hence each set will continuously be running conclusions (particularly for Mode 2 while swapping
and sharing third of the required load flow capacity to operation between units can be reconsidered for mode 1).
control the flow.

Fig.5. Proposed operation and PLC control program flow chart

 Fig.8. Simulation waveforms of unit 1 during
Fig.6. Simulation waveforms of unit 1 during Mode 2 (Simultaneous operation of all pumps)
Mode 1 (Sequence operation of each pump)

Fig.7. Simulation waveforms of the three units during Fig.9. Simulation waveforms of the three units during
Mode 1 (Sequence operation of each pump) Mode 2 (Simultaneous operation of all pumps)
 TABLE 1: MODE 1 OPERATION RESULTS

TABLE 2: MODE 2 OPERATION RESULTS

VI. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION TABLE 3: PLC DIGITAL INPUT / OUTPUT ADDRESS

The overall setup depicted in Fig. 4 has been
experimentally implemented, while the flow chart in Fig. 6
has been verified using ladder (LAD) program techniques of
the programmable logic control (PLC) with the addresses
defined through Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6. Please contact the
author for detailed PLC program.
The actual results as online waveforms of the three VSD
speeds have been obtained and plotted as Trend functions in TABLE 4: PLC ANALOG AND VSD WORD ADDRESS
the WinCC flexible software through the human machine
interface (HMI screen) and captured as illustrated in Fig.10
for Mode 1 while Figure 11 is for Mode 2.
From these experimental online results, it can be seen
that the proposed set can be effectively provide the two
modes of operation (based on the selection mode from the
digital inputs). For each mode, the PLC controls the
operating speeds of each drive according to the value of the
reference and analog feedback signal; mainly based on the
flow chart discussed in Fig.5. For Mode 1 each motor is
running at different predefined speed operation range while
for Mode 2 all motors are running at the same defined speed.

VII. CONCLUSIONS
Through this paper, a cased study of smart automated
system based on variable speed drives and programmable
logic controller has been proposed to fully control the TABLE 5: PLC AND HMI TAGS
operation of a multi-pump boosting unit. Effect of variable
speed on pump performance characteristics has been
discussed and the potential of possible energy saving has
been demonstrated. Simulation analysis together with
experimental validation of the proposed setup has been
implemented. The obtained results shown the effectiveness
of the proposed smart automated setup for achieving the TABLE 6: PROFIBUS NETWORKING ADDRESS
required variable flow operation by adjusting the speed of
each drive, based on the selected modes of operation. The
proposed setup has been proven to save energy; particularly
if the required operation has a wide range of variation and
specifically for lower demanded operation speeds with
possible need of additional concern regarding overall
efficiency.
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(a) Increasing the reference signal (b) Decreasing the reference signal
Fig.10. Experimental HMI trend results of pump speed for different required flows during Mode 1 (Sequence operation of each pump)

(a) Increasing the reference signal (b) Decreasing the reference signal
Fig.11. Experimental HMI trend results of pump speed for different required flows during Mode 2 (Simultaneous operation of all pumps)