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<h1>Ultimate Goal</h1>
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The foremost opportunity for efficiency improvement in most fluid systems is in what we call the <strong>ultimate goal</strong>.
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The <strong>ultimate goal</strong> of any pumping system is not to just pump the fluid from one place to another (or to circulate the fluid), but to accomplish some bigger purpose.  For example, if the system is used to remove heat from some process, the <strong>ultimate goal</strong> of the pumping system might be to keep a process fluid temperature at or below 85 degrees Fahrenheit.  If the pumping system were operated to maintain the maximum process temperature at 80 degrees F, the operation would clearly satisfy this <strong>ultimate goal</strong>.  But so would a maximum temperature of 84 degrees F (or 85 degrees F, for that matter).  
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Assume that this pumping system is composed of three parallel pumps that remove heat from a process and reject it to atmosphere (through cooling towers).  Also assume that for a typical summer day, the towers can cool the water in the basin to 75 degrees F.  It might be that operation of three parallel pumps with a combined flow rate of 2000 gallons per minute would maintain the 80 degree F process fluid temperature, while a single pump would operate at a flow rate of 1110  gpm, and at this flow rate would support an 84 degree F process condition.  Depending on the type of pumps and the nature of the system, the three-pump operation would typically require 2 to 3 times as much energy as the one-pump operation.  Simply turning off two of the three pumps would obviously result in considerable energy savings, at least for the pumping system.*
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Clearly, there are other factors to be considered in such situations.  For example, reliability factors may be much more important in the overall operational framework.  But  it is important to recognize that these factors are not always competing; in fact at the component level, operation of pumps at near the pump best efficiency point (BEP) will generally mean improved pump reliability.  At the system level, there are often joint actions that can be taken to improve efficiency and reliability.
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* It is important to recognize energy and other factors go beyond the pumping system.  In the example above, the temperature change on the supported process energy consumption might be to either positive or negative.  Therefore, the overall picture needs to be kept in mind, not just the pumping system.
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