Autonomous operation of high efficiency ESP drive systems for improved oil recovery

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The purpose of this project is to develop an autonomous control system to operate an interior permanent magnet (IPM) motor driven electric submersible pump (ESP) system for offshore oil and gas recovery. Standard ESPs are driven by inefficient submersible induction motors (IMs). Thus, the existing drive systems are developed on classical IM equipped ESP systems, and operate using an open-loop V/f control system. The existing ESP control solutions are not applicable to highly efficient IPM motor driven ESP systems due to complexities associated with an IPM motor control. The available downhole control and condition monitoring systems can't measure the instantaneous position of the ESP motor. As a result, the IPM technology has not become viable for deepwater offshore oil and gas recovery. In addition, the condition of a downhole well changes over time due to the presence of gas and solids. An IPM motor does not have any inherent damping capability like a standard IM. Thus, the operation of an IPM-ESP drive needs to be adjusted automatically with changing reservoir conditions to remain within a safe operating zone for avoiding failures. The existing ESP systems are non-autonomous, and are subjected to failures due to human operator's mistakes. For a harsh offshore environment, the total intervention cost to replace and/or repair an ESP unit is millions of dollars. Avalon Controls Ltd., a control and instrumentation company, is facing challenges with the development of an autonomous system for variable speed IPM-ESP drives. This project will address this problem, and an intelligent autonomous system will be developed for IPM-ESP drives that will monitor the downhole conditions, control the ESP drive accordingly by using a sensorless rotor position estimation based control technique and protect the system from premature motor failures. The proposed autonomous system will enhance the reliability and the performance of ESPs which are critical requirements for use in harsh offshore environment. The IPM-ESP drive system will be a new artificial lift technology to be used for the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil and gas production in the upcoming years.**********