| CPC F17D 5/06 (2013.01) [G08B 21/187 (2013.01)] | 11 Claims |

|
1. A method of detecting an anomaly in a pumped pipeline, the pipeline having a fluid to be pumped from a sump by a pumping system having a predetermined high and low level setpoint, the pumping system having a pump configured to start pumping when fluid in the sump is at the high level and stop pumping when the fluid is at the low level, the method comprising:
receiving a data stream over time on operation of the pump;
obtaining pump start and pump stop event data from the data stream;
for each pair in time of a pump start event and preceding pump stop event in the data stream:
determining from the pump start and pump stop event data a duration of time that the pump is off, Doff;
determining from the start and stop event data a duration of time that the pump is on, Don;
calculating flow from Doff and Don;
storing the calculated flow in a data repository;
comparing the calculated flow to an expected flow;
recording in the data repository an exception upon the variation between calculated flow and expected flow exceeding a predetermined threshold; and
triggering an alarm in dependence on the exception.
|