Investigation of premature ESP failures and oil field harmonic analysis

Electric submersible pumps (ESP) are used in a wide-range of applications from onshore to complex offshore, deep water, or subsea applications. Premature failures are undesired as they result in repair or replacement costs, but worse - downtime. This paper presents the challenges faced by the authors at an onshore oil field. The site experienced several ESP failures after drilling and operating 10% of the planned 300 wells. The authors were tasked to determine if power quality was a contributing factor in the premature failures and recommend a solution to prevent future occurrences. In addition to the failures, the oil field operator was concerned with the harmonic currents that would be generated once all 300 wells were online. The oil field is in an industrial area where large amounts of harmonic currents would increase voltage distortion to neighboring establishments and possibly lead to process disruption or equipment failure.