Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

In most industrial settings, energy consumed by pumping systems is responsible for a major part of the overall electricity bill. In some cases, the energy is used quite efficiently; in others, it is not. Facility operators may be very familiar with pumping system equipment controllability, reliability, and availability, but only marginally aware of system efficiency. The cost of energy consumed by pumps usually dominates the pump life cycle cost. But many end users, already stretched to support day-to-day facility operations, lack the time and resources to perform a methodical engineering study of, in some cases, hundreds of pumps within their facilities to understand the energy costs and the potential opportunity for reduction. Under the auspices of the Department of Energy's (DOE) Best Practices Program, prescreening guidance documents and a computer program called PSAT (Pumping System Assessment Tool) have been developed to help end users, consultants, and equipment distributors recognize, both qualitatively and quantitatively, pumping system efficiency improvement opportunities.