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Industrial · energy audit

Proving a pump had drifted 15% off its curve

The problem

A plant suspected a large process pump was underperforming and wasting energy, but had no flow measurement on the line to prove it. Installing an inline meter to investigate a maybe-problem was not justifiable.

The approach

A portable clamp-on survey. Clamp on, read the flow, compare against the pump's published curve at the measured head. The pump was delivering roughly 15% below its curve — degradation that had been quietly costing energy every hour and that nothing in the plant would have flagged until the pump failed outright.

What mattered in the detail

Repeatability, not absolute accuracy, carried the result. The question was comparative — is this pump delivering what it should — and clamp-on repeatability of ±0.2–0.3% is more than enough to detect a 15% shortfall with confidence. Straight run was respected so the number was trustworthy.

The lesson

You do not need custody-grade accuracy to catch a failing pump — you need a repeatable number and a straight run. A one-afternoon portable survey turned “we think the pump is tired” into a documented 15% loss and a maintenance decision.

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