Power consumption optimization for multiple parallel centrifugal pumps

Large amounts of energy is being used in a wide range of applications to transport liquid. This paper proposes a generic solution for minimizing power consumption of a generic pumping station equipped with identical variable speed pumps. The proposed solution consists of two sequential steps; firstly, the energy consumption for a pre-selected set of active pumps are formulated as a convex optimization problem and that can be solved analytically. Secondly, the problem of choosing the number of active pumps are formulated and solved using a convex solver subject to constraints. The proposed solution is compared with a conventional affinity-law based solution. The experimental analysis showed that the proposed solution and method lead to more precise pump modeling and simplicity in solving this type of pump optimization problem.