Monitoring Electrical Health of ESPs:

What Are Your Measurement Options?

By Anthony Thornberry

Presented at the Mid-Continent

Digital Oilfield Conference.
Tulsa, OK

January 26, 2017

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 Overview
 How’s your health?
 Components of an ESP (Electrical Submersible
Pump) system
 Megger Testing
 Critical downhole measurements
 4 Critical electrical downhole measurements
 Motor Temperature
 Motor Fluid Conductivity
 Line Current (Leakage Current)
 Wye Voltage
 ESP Motor Lab Test Data
 Summary

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 How’s Your Health?

Monitoring your system

• Blood pressure
• Temperature
• Pulse rate
• Strength
• Speed
• Flow lines – arteries, veins
• Valves
• Electrical signals

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Components of an ESP System

Surface Surface
Choke Readout
Unit Variable Speed
Wellhead (SRO) Drive (VSD)

3-Phase Power Line

Discharge Sub

ESP Pump

Motor Oil Seal

ESP Motor
Motor Wye Point
ESP Sensor

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Electrical Components and Measurements

Megger Choke
Testing SRO
High
Power
Surface Readout Data Wellhead
Voltage
Voltage
Protection
Data
VSD
Ground Powers the motor,
Drive frequency

3-Phase Power Line

Discharge Pressure
Sub

Line Current (Leakage Current)

Motor Seal – Conductivity Measurement

Motor Temperature
Motor Wye Point Voltage
System sensors (P, T, Vib. Etc.)

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 Megger Testing

 The Megger test is the most important electrical test of an ESP system.
 It is an IR (Insulation Resistance) test.
 A high DC Voltage (-5KVDC typical) is applied to the downhole cable, motor,
and gauge to verify High Voltage insulation rating of the system.
 An insulation breakdown results in a dangerous shock hazard.

Measured Parameter Observation Possible Causes

Phase to Phase high Motor cable damaged, high resistance

Megger Voltage test at resistance (> 100 ohms) connection, motor winding damaged
wellhead
Phase to Ground low Motor cable has low resistance to ground,
resistance (< 100K ohms) cable short to ground, gauge internal short
Apply -5KVDC typical
Measure Resistance Megger Breakdown test Motor Cable or winding insulation breakdown
failure (< 1M ohms) failure, eventual motor failure

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 Critical Downhole Measurements

Downhole gauge measures critical system parameters

 Intake Pressure
 Intake Temperature
 Discharge Sub Pressure
 Vibration (Vx, Vy, Vz)
 Line Voltage
 Motor Temperature
 Motor Fluid Conductivity
 Line Current (Leakage Current)
 Wye Point Voltage

Measurements shown in RED are indicators of

the Electrical Health of the ESP System.

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 ESP Motor Temperature

 Monitoring motor temperature is the

most important parameter for long
motor life.
 RTD (Resistive temperature
Detector) or thermocouple near the
motor windings
 Set a baseline motor temperature.
 Compare motor temperature with
pump intake temperature to establish
true motor temperature reference
point.

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 ESP Motor Temperature Trending
 Operating the motor at high temperatures reduces the
useful life of your motor.
 Typical motor temperatures are between 125°C to 200°C
depending upon the downhole applications.
 High motor temperatures can indicate:
 Motor bearing wear
 Motor winding stress
 Breakdown of wiring insulation and polymer fillers in windings
 Higher than expected motor torque
 Perform slow shutdown of motor to allow well fluid to cool
motor since cooling is accomplished by the pump.
 Avoid sudden temperature changes or spikes to your
motor to increase motor operating life.

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 Motor Fluid Conductivity

 Measures the electrical insulation properties of the

motor fluid.
 It is the electrical resistance between an internal pin
and the gauge housing in the presence of motor oil.
 The reading is usually in Ohms.
 Good, clean motor oil is important.
 Well fluids contaminate motor oil.

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 Motor Fluid Conductivity Trending

 Data Ranges can vary depending upon the

measurement scheme.
 Typical range is 0 to 20 Meg Ohm with 1Kohm resolution
steps.
 A decreasing resistance (increasing conductivity)
indicates there are intrusive fluids in the motor oil.
 High conductivity can lead to motor failure caused by:
 Motor seal leak
 Motor oil contamination
 Bladder or capillary failure
 Poor motor oil quality, burned motor oil

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 Line Current (Current Leakage)

 Measures the lost

Choke SRO
electrical current between High
Power
the surface equipment and Wellhead Voltage
Voltage
Ground Protection VSD
the downhole motor. Data
Powers the motor,
Drive frequency
 Calculated by subtracting
the downhole gauge
current from the current
Discharge Pressure
Sub
supplied by the Surface
Gauge Power Supply.
Current Leakage on Cable
 It is valid with and without
the motor running since it Seal – Conductivity Measurement
is supplied external to the
VSD three phase power. Motor Temperature
Motor Wye Point Voltage
System sensors (P, T, Vib., etc.)

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Line Current (Current Leakage) Trending

 It is important to “Zero” the Leakage Current setting during

the initial installation.
 After zeroing, trending data can be collected and monitored.
 Trending the data helps predict the electrical quality of the 3-
phase motor power cable and connections.
 Increasing Line Current can indicate cable and connection
failures can be caused by:
 Faulty or unsealed “Pot Head” connections to the motor
 Motor cable splices
 Cracking in the cable insulation
 Motor winding insulation breakdown failure

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 Motor Wye Point Voltage
 Measures the AC voltage between the motor
WYE point and motor casing or ground.
Wye Point Voltage
 It is located between the downhole gauge
and ESP motor.
 The WYE point voltage is the sum of all 3
phases of the downhole motor cable. V1 V3
 If there is no imbalance between the phases,
it measures 0V. V2
 System losses and mismatches in an ESP
system can generate an imbalance voltage.
 Wye Point voltage changes can be an
indication of pre-mature downhole motor
failure.

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 Motor Wye Point Voltage Trending
 Acceptable limits of imbalance voltage are 3-5% of the voltage
seen at the ESP motor.
 For example, an acceptable imbalance voltage for a 3000V motor is
between 90 – 150V (RMS).
 Higher voltages will shorten the motor life
and can result in loss of data to the SRO.
 A higher imbalance voltage can indicate:
 Insufficient VSD line filtering
 Motor winding mismatch
 Poor motor electrical connection
 3-phase motor cable mismatch or dropped phase
 Arcing, harmonic distortion of the sine wave signal from the VSD
 3rd harmonic line ripple due to motor winding losses
 Choice of type of VSD drive (direct, 6/12 step, PWM, etc.)
 PWM carrier noise – high frequency noise

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 ESP Motor Test Lab
 Motor Test Lab simulates downhole conditions
 A single downhole induction motor rated to 1500V
 2000 ft of 3-phase power cable
 Dynamic torque resistance load (dyno)
 Sensors are tested at temperatures up to 230ºC

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 Wye Point Imbalance with Temperature
 The WYE Voltage can be difficult to measure over a wide
temperature, voltage, and frequency range.
 An example of uncompensated raw data collection is shown below
with increasing motor imbalance.
 Digital Signal Conditioning is used to compensate readings over a
wide temperature range (25ºC to 150ºC).
Wye Point Voltages over Temperature
700

600
Applied HV Imbalance

500
100C Data
400 150C Data
300 125C DAta

200 75 C Data
25C Data
100

0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Uncompensated Wye point voltage reading

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Data Communication Integrity at Low Drive Frequencies

ESP Gauge Data Protocols

 Digital PW Data - data is communicated in the form of pulse widths in time
which are proportional to the sensor reading. PW data uses a single sample
per measurement.
 Digital Lossless Data - sending the actual measurement encoded into a
digital numeric coding format. Oversampling data reduces errors in the data
stream for low frequency noise.

Digital Lossless Data and Digital PW Data

vs Drive Frequency
20
18
Gauge Sensor Value

16
14
12
10 PWM IP(psi)
8 Lossless IP(psi)
6
4
2
0
0 10 15 20 40 60
Motor Drive Frequency (Hz)

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Summary – 4 Critical Electrical Measurements
Measured
Observation Possible Causes
Parameter
Motor Increasing Motor bearing wear
Temperature Motor winding stress
Breakdown of wiring insulation and polymer fillers in windings
High motor torque
Motor Fluid Increasing Motor Seal Leak
Conductivity Bladder or capillary failure

Leakage Current Increasing Cable insulation breakdown, cable splice failure, damaged or
pinched cable

Motor Wye Point Increasing Decreased pump efficiency; motor temperature increase;
Voltage motor and/or cable failure due to imbalance, capacitive cable
coupling, CMC Common Mode Current, Reflected Wave
Voltage from HV pulses (PWM or Reflection)

* Megger testing should be performed as a requirement before initial operation of

any ESP system.

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