Investigation of transients in a submersible electric motor with a downhole compensator

Abstract

Abstract Currently, the energy efficiency improving into the oil production is an important task. The main electricity consumer in the electrical complex structure of the electric centrifugal pumps’ installation is a submersible asynchronous electric motor. The power factor of these electric motors varies from 0.75 to 0.85. It leads to the losses’ increasing in the conductive elements of the complex. The use of downhole reactive power compensators is the most potential way to increase the power factor into the submersible asynchronous electric motors. In the course of pilot tests there are some cases of the protection devices for downhole compensators’ false triggering. It is recorded when the control station is switched off. It leads to the energy efficiency decreasing into the oil production. The purpose of this study is to research the transients in a submerged asynchronous electric motor equipped by the downhole compensator when the power supply is switched off. The task of the study is to determine the transient process’ parameters, in order to prevent false triggering of the downhole compensator protection devices. Simulation modeling of a submerged electric motor with a downhole compensator is performed in the Matlab Simulink. A simulation model of a submerged electric motor with a downhole compensator is developed to study transients when the power supply is switched off. The characteristics for the transient process of the voltage and current into the downhole compensator are obtained during the simulation modeling. The current surge for the capacitors’ discharge of the downhole compensator is 260.7% relative to the rated current at the time of the power supply disconnection. Prevention measures off false triggering for automatic shutdown devices of the downhole compensator are proposed.