A
system and method are provided for reducing the energy consumed by a pump jack
electric motor by reducing the supply
voltage to the motor when the motor would be generating energy in open loop mode. By substantially eliminating the energy generation mode, the braking action of the utility grid in limiting the acceleration of the motor and
system that would otherwise occur is substantially removed. The motor and
system will speed up, allowing the natural
kinetic energy of the cyclic motion to perform part of the pumping action. A
closed loop controller in
electrical connection with the motor computes the necessary information from the observed
phase angle between the
voltage and current supplied to the motor. By reducing the supply
voltage to the motor, the observed
phase angle may be reduced to a target
phase angle value. By allowing some current flow, primarily of a reactive nature, an
observable feedback parameter may be used in the
closed loop control system as an indication of the load condition, to which the
closed loop motor controller may react, supplying power when needed, such as in the
energy consumption mode. The
electric motor may be effectively turned off, but without completely
cutting the power to the motor. During both the
energy consumption mode and the period that open loop energy generation would be occurring, the closed loop
motor controller may reduce the observed phase angle to a target phase angle by reducing the supply voltage. Any further reduction in the observed phase angle below the target phase angle may be interpreted as an increase in
motor load, to which the
motor controller may respond by increasing the supply voltage to the motor until the target phase angle is once again reached.