Evaluation of the energy efficiency of functioning and increase in the operating time of hydraulic drives of sucker-rod pump units in difficult operating conditions

The necessity of improving the drives of the sucker-rod hydraulic pump units (SRHP), operated in conditions of marginal and complicated wells, is substantiated. For complicated oil production conditions, it is promising to use the SRHP drive, which makes it possible to select and set rational operating modes for downhole equipment. The results of comparative tests of conventional mechanical and hydraulic actuators SRHP with pneumatic and electrodynamic balancing types are presented. A generalized indicator for evaluating the effectiveness of the advanced SRHP drives functioning, the energy efficiency coefficient, is proposed. It has been experimentally proven that the use of the SRHP drive with pneumatic balancing is characterized by low energy efficiency of the well fluid production process. The use of the tested SRHP hydraulic drive made it possible to successfully eliminate asphalt, resin, and paraffin deposits and minimize the well downtime. The results of the tests of the traditional SRHP mechanical drive and the hydraulic drive with electrodynamic balancing showed a satisfactory energy efficiency of the latter. The advantage of the SRHP drive with electrodynamic balancing is the simplicity of the design of the hydraulic part. The process of energy regeneration during the drive control system operation causes an increase in the reactive power component in the oil field network and the appearance of harmonic interference that adversely affects the consumers operation. Technical solutions aimed at improving the operation energy efficiency and increasing the operating time of SRHP drives in the conditions of marginal and complicated wells are proposed. The methodological bases for assessing the economic efficiency of the introduction of the advanced SRHP drives are given.