2018 Twentieth International Middle East Power Systems Conference (MEPCON), Cairo University, Egypt
Power Saving of Multi Pump-Motor Systems
Using Variable Speed Drives
Abdelsalam Ahmed Basma Moharam
Electrical Power and Machines Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical
Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University, Department, Ministry of Water
Tanta, Egypt Resources and Irrigation, Cairo, Egypt
abdelsalam.abdelsalam@f-eng.tanat.edu.eg engbasmamoharam@yahoo.com
Abstract—A direct-connected multi pump-motor system
suffers from energy loss during the process of varying water
head and flow at fixed operating point. In This paper, two
variable-speed drive strategies are adopted for driving a multi
pump system and selecting number of the operated pumps for
achieving the required head and flow with energy saving. A
comparison between multi-pump single drive (MPSD) system
and multi pump multi drive (MPMD) is presented. The
comparison of two methods are verified by simulation results
and the dynamic performance of the system is studied. The
overall system efficiency is analysis for two case studies. From
the results, the system efficiency could be improved and then
energy could be saved by using MPMD system.
Keywords—multi-pump single-drive; multi-pump multi-drive,
efficiency analysis and power saving.
I. INTRODUCTION
Pumping stations are used worldwide for fluid
distribution in commercial, industrial, and residential
applications [1]. In multi-pump systems, running the pump
outside the best efficiency region can lead to harmful
phenomena like cavitation, flow recirculation, wear out of
bearings, influencing on the physical parameters of processed
fluid [2], [3]. Parallel pumping system is the most widespread
type of multi pumping arrangement. This type is used in
different types of industries and especially in service industry
including domestic water supplying station. [4].
Many researchers have been worked to increase the
efficiency and save more energy in the multi water pump-
motor system. A predictive control method is presented in [5]
to perform a multi-pump station. The proposal offers a
principle for the comparison of operating point locations
before and after the change of the number of working pumps.
Also, adjusting the number of working pumps in multi-pump
system in presented in [2]. It concerns the efficiency maps
which are not always present in the datasheet of the pump.
Parallel pumping station is overviewed in [6]. In [7], [8] head
and pressure predictive control approach is presented for a
multi-pump station with variable speed drives (VSD) and
programmable logic controller. The preliminary tabulated
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978-1-5386-6654-8/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Essam Rashad
Electrical Power and Machines Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering, Tanta University,
Tanta, Egypt
emrashad@ieee.org
characteristics with involved efficiency distribution
diagrams, efficiency of a multi-pump station is increased.
This paper is the extension of [1] which adopted the field-
oriented speed control of an IM for pump-motor system with
variable speed drives. This paper presents a technique for
selecting the most efficient operational mode of a multi
pump-motor system for achieving the requested flow and
head. Firstly, multi pump-motor motor characteristic is
studied using VSD. Then, selecting the number of operating
pumps for achieving the required head and flow is presented.
Then, the MPSD and MPMD methodologies are compared to
candidate the most efficient methodology. Finally, the
efficiency of the two methodologies is analyzed.
II. MULTI PUMP-MOTOR DRIVES
A. Water pump system characteristic curve
For a pump-motor system with variable speed drives, the
operation of the pump is determined by its performance
characteristic curve in which the total head ℎ is described as a
function of the water flow rate and speed as the
polynomial of (1) [1]:
ℎ( , ) = − − (1)
where , and are constants from pump geometry. For a
fixed pump speed, (1) could be rewritten as (2) which
represents the performance pump curve at each fixed speed.
ℎ( ) = ℎ − − (2)
where ℎ is the pump shut off head, and are the head loss
factors. The pumping system curve is described by (3).
ℎ( ) = ℎ + (3)
where ℎ is the system shut-off head and is system head
factor. When a pump is installed in a system, the operating
point at rated conditions [ℎ , ] is the intersection of
pumping system curve and pumping performance curve.
When the speed is different from the rated , the arbitrary
operating point [ℎ , ] shifts along the pump system curve in
accordance to the hydraulic affinity laws as given by (4).
= and = (4)
B. Pump-motor efficiency
The detailed pump efficiency is presented in [1]. Figure
1 shows efficiency/power distribution of pump-motor system.
3ϕ
P Ac
P =T .ω
m m P
h

3-ph Pump
IN
IM
coupling
η rect
η inv
η motor
η pump

Fig. 1 Scheme of efficiency/power distribution of pump-motor system

Fig.2. characteristic of multi pump system
The mechanical power on the pump-motor shaft as
D. Multi Pump-motor with Variable Speed Drives
= (5)
A family performance curve of multi pump-motor drive
where, is a rotational mechanical speed (rad/s), is shaft under variable speed is obviously shown in Fig. 3. The speed
mechanical torque of the motor. The required hydraulic power of an IM is controlled by FOC method to drive the IM at a new
from the pump-motor system could be expressed as: operating point which achieves the demand head and flow as
= ℎ (6) presented in [1]. By using this technique of control, many
speed curves can be obtained.
where, is the water density ( / ), g is the gravity
( / ), q is pump flow rate ( /ℎ ), and ℎ is vertical height
from the dynamic water level to the highest point of delivery.
Referring to (4) and (5), the pump efficiency could be found
from (6).
= (7)

C. Characteristic of multi-pump system

Figure 2 shows the characteristic of multi pump-motor
system. For similar pumps in parallel, each value of flow q is
doubled for the corresponding head h. This regularity
emanates from the fact that total flow is formed by sum of
individual flows in parallel pumping. So it can be stated that
for parallel pumping:
= = =⋯= =∑
where is a total flow of z pumps; , and are
individual flow of each pump and when z identical pumps
operate in parallel correspondingly. This principle together
with the affinity laws makes possible to determine the shape
of q/h curve for z working pumps before starting the auxiliary
pump. Hence, it is possible to estimate the future location of
working point, on condition that the pressure has to be kept on
constant level.
The manufacturer’s datasheets restrict the pump highest
and lowest speeds as well as the highest and lowest flow rates.
To overcome these restrictions, the pumps are usually
arranged in multi-pump stations. Their common flow rate is z
times higher than a separate pump has as shown in Fig. 2 for
z = 5. It means that many of the working points might be
obtained using different number of pumps, from 1 to z. For a
multi pump-motor station, the polynomials (2) is moderated
to be (9).
ℎ( ) = ℎ − ( )− ( )
Selecting number of pumps achieve required head and flow
depends on the total efficiency of the overall system as
= ( + + + ⋯+ ) (10)
Fig. 3. A family performance curve of multi pump at different speed
(8)
III. OPERATION OF MULTI PUMP-MOTOR DRIVES
In parallel pump-motor units, the operation of the pump-
motor drives depend on the requested water flow. So, number
of "ON" pumps could be determined by
= (11)
+ 1
where is number of working pumps and is total
required flow of the system. Pumping station design can be
built on multi pump single drive or multi-pump multi drive.
A. multi pump single drive (MPSD)
For the non-integer pumps from (11), MPSD could be
adopted. The integer pumps are directly connected to supply
power lines to operate at rated conditions; whereas the
fractional required operational point is covered by one pump-
motor with variable drive system as shown in Fig. 4. In this
(9) case, the requested flow rate is1850gpm at a fixed head of 27.7
feet. When a MPSD is adopted, three pumps are operate at
rated conditions; i.e.1750rpm with =78% to flow 1650gpm
as shown in Fig.5. The forth pump is operated away of its rated
point with variable speed drives which runs at 1490rpm to
achieve 200gpm with =46% as shown in Fig.6. So, the
overall flow rate of 1850gpm is achieved at fixed head 27.7
feet with overall efficiency of 70%.

840
 η η 3- η η
P P
motor pump motor pump
in in coupling
Variable Pump
Speed Drive of
3-ph
IM IM
P =T
m m
.ω P =T
m m
.ω

Variable Pump
Speed Drive of
3-ph
IM IM

P = ρghq
h
Variable Pump
P = ρghq
h

Speed Drive of
3-ph
IM IM

Variable Pump
Speed Drive of
3-ph
IM IM

Variable Pump
Speed Drive of
3-ph
IM IM

Fig. 4. Multi pump single drive configuration

Fig. 7. Multi pump multi drive of multi pumps

Fig.8. Characteristic of four pumps of multi pump system

Fig.5. Characteristic of three pumps system
IV. SIMULATION RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
In this section, the operation of multi pump-motor system
is simulated by PSIM software. First, the dynamic behavior of
the two methods are performed. Second, different operational
circumstances are simulated and tabulated with intensive
numerical analysis at one common condition.
Head (feet)

Fig.6. Characteristic of forth pump of multi pump system
B. Multi-pump multi drive (MPMD)
In MPMD, each pump is equipped with VSD as shown in
Fig. 7. When the MPMD is adopted to achieve the required
flow and head, there are four pumps operate at variable speed
of 1670rpm to achieve required flow of 1850gpm at fixed head
of 27.7feet as shown in Fig. 8. The overall efficiency for the
system becomes 75%.
A. Dynamic performance
1) Operation of multi pump single drive (MPSD)
In this mode, MPSD is adopted in which three pump-motor
sets work at rated speed of 1750 rpm and 20 Nm, as shown in
Fig. 9. The dynamic response of water flow, head, speed,
torque, and phase current are shown in Fig.9 (a), (b), (c) and
(d), respectively. This results represents the operating point in
Fig. 5. It could be noted that the maximum valve of the phase
current is 14 as shown in Fig.9 (d).
For the fourth pump, as depicted in Fig. 6, the operating
point of the IM becomes 1490 rpm @ 15 Nm to achieve
200gpm @ 27.7feet as shown in Fig. 10. Water flow, head,
pump-motor speed, motor torque, and phase current response
are shown in Figs. 10(a), (b), (c) and (d), respectively. Also, it
could be noted that the maximum valve of phase current is
10.5A as in Fig.10 (d).

841
 (a) (a)

(b) (b)

(c) (c)

(d) (d)
Fig.9. Dynamic performance of IM for three pumps in MPSD: (a) flow and Fig.10. Dynamic performance of IM for fourth pump in MPSD: (a) flow
head, (b) speed response, (c) torque response, (d) current response. and head, (b) speed response, (c) torque response, (d) current response.

From the characteristics study of the pump-motor system

2) Operation of multi pump multi drive (MPMD) in Section III, the efficiency of motor and its drive system are
In this mode, the four pump-motor systems are working at changed when the motor speed is changed. However, the
variable speed drive according to the set head and flow. Fig. efficiency could be improved when the operating point is
11 shows the dynamic behavior of each pump-motor drives. located around the rated operation. Now, the "ON" pumps is
Corresponding to the operating point in Fig. 8 calculated from (11) as = 1850⁄550 = 3.36. The
(1250gpm@27.7feet), the IM works at 1670 rpm@18 Nm. working pumps are considered as = 4. For the MPSD,
Also, the maximum valve of the phase current is 12.5A as there are there pumps will be operated at rated (550gpm,
shown in Fig.11 (d). 27.7feet, 1750rpm) and the forth pump operates at 200gpm,
B. Efficiency analysis of the two pump-motor drives 27.7feet and 1490rpm.
Four operational cases of multi pump-motor system are 1) The efficiency analysis of three integer pumps in MPSD
recorded and analyzed. The system consists of five pump- Referring to Fig. 1, the required hydraulic power
motor systems with typical rated operating point of each unit delivered from the pump-motor drive could be calculated as
as 1750 r/min, 550gpm, 27.7 feet. The simulation results of ( ). ( ) ∗ .
[9] (HP) = = = 3.8 ℎ = 2.835 .
the two suggested operation method, i.e. MPSD and MPMD
are recorded in Table I.

842
 .
pump efficiency becomes = = 100% =
.
44.7%. The motor and electric drive efficiency
.
is η %= = 100% = 75.3%.
.
The efficiency of individual pump-motor is
= ∗η
.
= = 100 = 33.6%. (13)
.
(a)
In this case of MPSD, from (12) and (13), the total
efficiency of the overall multi pump system is
⋯ ( ∗ . )%
= = = 49.3%. (14)
3) The efficiency analysis of the pumps in MPMD
For the MPMD mode, four pumps will operate at the rated
point (462.5gpm, 27.7feet, 1670rpm). The required hydraulic
power from the pump-motor system could be expressed as
(b) ( ). ( ) . ∗ .
(HP) = = = 3.8 ℎ = 2.413 .
The mechanical power on the shaft could be expressed
. ∗ ∗
as = = = 3.218 . The total input
Torque(N.m)

power of the system could be expressed as = . =

450 ∗ 8.785 = 3953 = 3.953 . The overall pump
.
efficiency is found as = = ∗ 100% = 74.9%.
.
The efficiency of motor and its electric drive could be
(c) .
calculated as η = = ∗ 100 = 81.4%.
.
The efficiency of individual pump system is expressed as
%= ∗η
.
= = ∗ 100% = 61.04%. (15)
.

The overall efficiency of the multi pump-motor system is

⋯
= = 61.04%. (16)
(d)
Fig.11. Dynamic performance of IM for the fourth pump: (a) flow and
head, (b) speed response, (c) torque response, (d) current response To validate the contribution of this paper, the overall
efficiency of pump-motor drives is calculated at different
From simulation results at rated conditions, the mechanical water flow points and are listed in Table I. At 750gpm, the
power on the shaft could be expressed as = = overall efficiency is 49.3% and 54.33% for MPSD and
∗ ∗
= 3.644 = 4.885ℎ . From the side of DC-link, MPMD, respectively. At 1300gpm, the overall efficiency is
the input power of the system could be expressed as = 54.53% and 59.08% for MPSD and MPMD, respectively. At
∗ = 450 ∗ 9.7 = 4365 = 4.365 . Pump efficiency 2400gpm, the overall efficiency is 58.72% and 62.15% for
.
is expressed as = = ∗ 100% = 77.8%. The MPSD and MPMD, respectively. It could be concluded that
.
motor and electric drive efficiency could be estimated as the efficiency is increased when MPMD is adopted.
.
η %= = ∗ 100% = 83.6%. The efficiency C. Power and energy saving analysis
.
of individual pump-motor system could be expressed as
The power saving by using the MPMD method is calculated
%= η
by:
.
= = 100% = 65%. (12) Power saving (kW) = (3*4.36+3.105)-(4*3.953) = 0.373kW.
.

2) The efficiency analysis of the forth pump in MPSD The percentage of power saving could be estimated as:
For the fourth pump-motor with VSD, the required ( )
hydraulic power from the pump-motor system is % = ∗ 100% = 2.5%
( ). ( ) ∗ . ( )
(HP) = = = 1.399 ℎ = 1.0436 .
The mechanical power on the shaft coupled pump with The actual energy cost is based upon the percent of the total
motor could be expressed as = =
∗ ∗
= hours that the system is operated at each condition. Using [9]
the energy saving could be estimated as:
2.34( ). The total input power of the system is found as
= . = 450 ∗ 6.9 = 3105 = 3.105 . Overall

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 TABLE I EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS OF MULTI-PUMP SINGLE DRIVE AND MULTI-PUMP MULTI DRIVE SYSTEMS

Multi-Pump Single Drive (MPSD)

(gpm) 750 1300 1850 2400
ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF
2 3 3 2 4 1 5 0
rated variable - rated variable - rated variable - rated variable -
1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1
% 78 44.7 - 78 44.7 - 78 44.7 - 78 44.7 -
(kw) 4.36 3.105 - 4.36 3.105 - 4.36 3.105 - 4.36 3.105 -
% 83.6 75 83.6 75 83.6 75 83.6 75
% 65 33.6 - 65 33.6 - 65 33.6 - 65 33.6 -

% 49.3 - 54.53 - 57.15 - 58.72 -

Multi-Pump Multi Drive (MPMD)
ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF
2 3 3 2 4 1 5 0
rated variable - rated variable - rated variable - rated variable -
0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5
% 0 69.3 - 0 73.6 - 0 74.9 - 0 75.65 -
(kw) 0 3.6 - 0 3. 825 - 0 3.953 - 0 4.03 -
% 0 78.4 - 0 80. 26 - 0 81.4 - 0 82.15 -
% 0 54.33 - 0 59.08 - 0 61.04 - 0 62.15 -
% 54.33 - 59.08 - 61.04 - 62.15 -
power saving(kw) 0.265 0.35 0.373 0.395

Nineteenth International Middle East Power Systems

= ∗ℎ ∗% ∗ Conference (MEPCON), Menoufia University, Egypt, 19-21
Assume the percent of the total operating hours during a [2]
day is 50 %. Then total operation time is 4320 hr and at
the cost of kw/hr as $0.07, the save of the energy when
MPMD is used becomes = $112.8/ . [3]
[4]
CONCLUSION
[5]
This paper presents a research study on two
operational strategies for driving a multi pump-motor
system with variable speed drives; i.e. MPSD and [6]
MPMD. These methods depend on selecting the
optimum number of the ON pumps for achieving the
required head and flow. The criteria of selection is the
[7]
high efficiency operation and then the highest energy
saving. The comparison between MPSD and MPMD are
validated via simulating the dynamic behavior of the IM
[8]
and also by intensive tabulated simulation results at
different load circumstances. From analyzing of the
results, it could be concluded that the efficiency and [9]
power of the two strategies have different operating
points. The overall efficiency of the multi pump-motor
system could be improved to be 61.04% instead of
57.1% by MPMD methodology. The power could be
saved in MPMD by 2.5% and then the energy could be
saved.
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