OREANDA-NEWS. March 16, 2012. The increase of energy consumption in the sphere of oil pipeline transport is reasonable as the oil production and oil pumping volumes also grow. We should note that according to the hydraulic principles, the consumption rate of energy used for oil delivery while oil transportation via a pipeline, which is “Thousand kWh-hour/million tons-kiliometer”, can be counted according to the formula “E = K * G”, where G is a supply turnover via an oil pipeline, and K is a constant value for this very oil pipeline. So it is evident, that the consumption rate of energy can not be lowered if the oil supply turnover increases, but it would also increase according to the oil supply turnover in degree of 1.75.

If power effective arrangements are not implemented, then the increased scheduled gross oil supply turnover via the system of trunk oil pipelines by TRANSNEFT JSC will also result in increase of energy consumption rate. That is why TRANSNEFT JSC has elaborated and implements now the Program of Energy Efficiency. So, under its realization in the year 2011, there was 314 million kWh-hour of power saved, and the economy in the year 2012 is estimated as 368 million kWh-hour.

The pipeline transport system is a complex energy consumer. The first and the main source of energy consumption are electromotors of pumps. On trunk oil pipelines (TOP), synchronous electric motors of normal design of STD type and explosionproof ones of STDP type, and also asynchronous electric motors are used for feeding main and charging pumps. To provide optimal conditions of oil pipelines exploitation and optimal parameters of technological process, and besides to lower energy consumption accordingly, a regulation on rotating frequency of pumping aggregates and implementation of frequency regulated electric drives for TOP pumps are required. Electric motors produced by the world leading companies such as ABB and Siemens with frequency regulated electric drives, and also the ones produced by Russian manufacturers with the coefficient of efficiency not less than 96.7 per cent were used while realization of ESPO-1 and ESPO-2 oil pipeline systems. A number of Russian manufacturers of electric motors gave their response to the appeal of the Company to create high reliable frequency regulated electric motors of local production.

While realization the innovation development Program, the Company restricts its requirements to electric motors and implements their modernization. According to the Company’s technical requirements, the overhaul period for asynchronous and synchronous drives was increased by 270 per cent in the year 2011 in comparison with the year 2010, and now it is 63.000 work hours instead of 17.000 hours in 2010. The plans of technical re-equipment  and repair works by TRANSNEFT JSC presuppose changing of 429 electric motors of pumps that had worked out their normative working period until the year 2017.

The main part of consumed energy is spent on overcoming the force of hydraulic resistance in pipelines. That is why lowering the coefficient of hydraulic resistance in pipelines is a reasonable scientific problem in the sphere of pipeline transport. TRANSNEFT JSC implements a research program on this very direction for trunk oil- and oil products pipelines using different accelerators and methods of influence to the fluid pumped. The realization of the program will allow replacing expensive imported accelerators of foreign manufacturers, which increase the productivity of transportation up to 30 per cent, and lower energy consummation by pump motors up to 40 per cent. A regular cleaning of oil pipelines with special cleaning units also helps in solving this problem.

Optimization and estimation of regimes of pumping through the oil pipeline system (the optimal number of pumping aggregated turned on at the pumping stations) made by a special monitoring department, plays an important role in the question of power efficiency.

And we should mention pumps at last. The economical efficiency of pumping equipment is determined by the value of the coefficient of efficiency while the exploitation process. Until recent, there were none manufacturers in Russia who produced trunk pumps. TRANSNEFT JSC had to buy such pumps abroad, namely in Ukraine (Nasosenergomash Sumsky plant OJSC) and in the Great Britain (Sulzer Pamps Ltd).

The quality, the power expenses, the characteristics and the time of deliveries of these pumps do not fully satisfy the requirements of TRANSNEFT JSC. So, the actual indexes of work of the main trunk oil pumps differ from the characteristics stipulated in their passports by 1-6 per cent on an average. The pumps by SULZER production mounted at ESPO-1 pumping stations had a series of manufacturing defects of the body cast, unsatisfactory finishing of the surface of the main housing of pumps and another series of drawbacks found while exploitation of the equipment in winter period.

That is why the Company organized the elaboration of new pumps of native production. The working out of the first native trunk oil pump with the feed of 7.000 cubic meters per hour was finished by TRANSNEFT JSC in assistance of TURBONASOS Federal Space Agency in 2010. In total, 16 trunk pumps of new construction were implemented at the manufacturing facilities of the Company, including 2 new pumping aggregates NMM-1250-400-2UHL4 for TRANSNEFTEPRODUCT OJSC.