Modelling and model predictive control of oil wells with Electric Submersible Pumps

摘要

In this paper we describe control challenges related to operation of oil wells equipped with Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) and formalize them in a control problem setting in the language of control system engineers. Then we present a simple dynamic model of an oil well equipped with ESP. This model can be used for controller development. To solve this problem, we propose a Model Predictive Control (MPC) strategy and present experimental results of an MPC controller successfully tested in a large scale test facility with a full scale ESP, live crude oil in an emulated oil well.