“Our latest version of TAS PumpMonitor enables raw engineering data from a client's pumps to be accessed directly for analysis by PumpMonitor, and the results to be relayed back to the client’s control centre within seconds,” begins TAS Online MD. Harry Rosen.
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The latest version of TAS PumpMonitor enables direct access to raw engineering data from a client's pumps for analysis by PumpMonitor, with results relayed back to the client’s control centre within seconds.
“As an ‘outsider’ to a client network, we used to have a separate onsite server to extract data from the pumps onsite, before sending it on for analysis at TAS Online. It was difficult to extract the data and even more difficult to act speedily on the results,” he tells MCA.
“Consultants working for mining clients can’t have direct access to their network, but for the best results, we needed to be able to react rapidly to issues detected by our performance monitoring service. This is now possible through AVEVA CONNECT Data Services, an easily scalable cloud-based interface and data management service that makes sharing industrial data simple and secure,” Rosen explains.
A goldmining success
TAS Online has been monitoring pump stations for a deep gold mine near Carltonville since 2008, collecting pump process data from its underground dewatering pump stations. Rosen says that the mine operates in some deep mines that must be continuously dewatered. Natural surface water enters, refrigerated water is introduced, and some equipment still uses water for hydraulics. So all this water must be pumped out again to keep key parts of the mine from flooding.
“We have now installed our new cloud-based PumpMonitor system at this mine. With a depth of over 4 000 m, this is the deepest underground mine in the world and one of the highest pumping shafts in terms of volume, so it's a perfect application to test our latest PumpMonitor innovation,” he notes.
To dewater the mine, 10- to 12-stage multi-stage pumps from OEMs such as Scamont and Sulzer are being used. These pumps draw water from several pump stations at different levels into a series of underground dams and ultimately to a surface dam. Each pump station typically has two sets of two pumps, connected in parallel. The two inner pumps are connected into a single column, and the two outer pumps are connected into a second column.
“Each pump in the system is typically driven by a 4 000 kW motor, so the dewatering operation can consume 12 MW of electrical power at every level. Should the pumps run inefficiently, due to wear or being operated outside of best efficiency, massive unnecessary consumption and expenses can accrue,” explains Harry Rosen.
The key reason for monitoring pumps like these is to maximise efficiency, he continues. “In the past, we monitored and calculated their efficiency every month. Pumps were manually tested every 2-3 months, and when any pump dropped below a specific efficiency level, we would recommend refurbishing it. However, the pump test only measured the efficiency of each pump when running independently of the others.
When running pumps in parallel, as soon as one pump’s efficiency drops, due to wear or damage, for example, the more efficient pump will dominate, pushing the weaker one further away from its most efficient operating zone. Our previous pump monitoring system, based on periodic testing, could not track exactly where a pump was operating on its curve in real time, and we found that the actual pump efficiency during that period was significantly lower than the one-off test results. This prevented us from alerting the mine promptly to pump performance and efficiency issues, which can totally change the decision as to when to refurbish the pump,” Rosen suggests.
Pumping in parallel offers significant energy savings opportunities, he continues, because it is not just about squeezing three or four percent better efficiency from a pump. The wasted energy when parallel pumping with one strong pump and one weaker one is typically in the 15-20% range. For two mismatched 4 000 kW pumps connected in parallel, continuous and unnecessary power losses of between 600 and
800 kW may occur. For a 24/7 operation on an industrial tariff of, say, R1.50/kWh, losses in the order of R1-million per month could accrue.
“This makes the rapid intervention to restore the failing pump very cost-effective,” Rosen points out.
The AVEVA World presentation
At the AVEVA World Annual Congress 2025 in April of this year, TAS Online and AVEVA delivered a joint presentation on the successful combination of PumpMonitor with AVEVA CONNECT, which helped the South African gold mine minimise its pump losses. Held in San Francisco earlier this year, this is a big annual event for AVEVA end-users and their partners, which attracts over
3 000 people, says Rosen.
The TAS PumpMonitor presentation highlighted how raw data from the pumps, normally collected for the mines' digital control centre, was also made available to TAS Online in real time via AVEVA’s Connect Data services.
“Data from pumps, including suction and discharge pressures, flow rates and power consumption, don't mean anything on their own. It's only when you relate these to the specific pump’s performance curve that you can gain a clear idea of how well or how poorly a pump is performing. This is what TAS Online has been doing for years, but this is the first time we have been able to plot and track a pump’s performance on a pump curve in real time.
“We are now able to accurately track and compare the operating efficiency of each pump to determine whether it is good or bad, by plotting the data onto each individual pump’s performance and efficiency curves. This makes even the smallest deviation away from the ideal efficiency zone of every dewatering pump transparent, enabling in-time targeted action to be taken to minimise losses and maximise the specific energy efficiency of each pump,” Rosen explains.
There are also times when the mine only needs to run one of the two parallel pumps, which enables the system to recalibrate itself, resulting in more accurate performance tracking. “Because there is only one flowmeter per riser column, we can accurately measure the flow rate of an individual pump without having to calculate how the flow is shared, which requires the use of other data like the motor power,” he adds.
Having data in the CONNECT cloud means that all South African mines can now access near-real-time performance monitoring, without impacting local network infrastructure. It also enables pump maintenance teams to have 24/7 access to accurate performance data from anywhere. “The value of this cannot be overstated,” said Rosen at AVEVA World. “Power costs amount to 90% of the total life-cycle cost of a typical water pump; pumping systems use 40% of electric motor consumption in industrialised countries; the average energy wastage in pumping systems is in the 15-40% range, and, based on UNIDO pump system audits, energy savings in the order 10-20% have routinely been demonstrated by returning performance to best possible efficiency,” he argues.
“Pump performance is also a very reliable indicator of pump condition. Operating pumps at best efficiency improves pump reliability and the wear life of all components, including bearings and seals,” concludes Rosen, adding that this is worth unpacking in a future article.