There is often a lack of instrumentation available to monitor basic pump performance in typical legacy power plants. For example, in a three-pump parallel arrangement, often only the suction and discharge header pressure and temperature are available in addition to a motor winding temperature. It would be nice to have vibrations, individual suction/header pressures, flows, and temperatures, motor current and temperature for each winding, etc.
However, what can we monitor with just header parameters? Try creating a logic tag that determines which pumps are on. For example, in a three-pump parallel arrangement, often 2/3 pumps are on at any given time. Looking at historical data you can determine when each pump combination is in service by comparing motor winding temperature to pump header discharge pressure. Next, you can build a model for Pumps 1&2, Pumps 2&3, and Pumps 1&3 in service with a focus on the discharge pressure trend over time.
For questions or a discussion email me at aaron.hussey@int-analytics.com
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