Method for identifying and removing a blockage of a centrifugal pump

A centrifugal pump comprising an electric motor for driving the centrifugal pump and at least one of a closed-loop and an open-loop control device comprising a closed-loop controller controlling the electric motor in a closed-loop manner, wherein

• the at least one of the closed-loop and the open-loop control device is configured to check whether activity of the closed-loop controller has fallen below a threshold value and whether at least one of a motor current and a motor torque of the electric motor differs before and after the activity falls below the threshold value, in order to identify the blockage, wherein the activity of the closed-loop controller is determined by a product of the high-pass-filtered speed of the electric motor and at least one of the high-pass-filtered motor current and the high-pass-filtered torque of the electric motor;
• and
• if so, the at least one of the closed-loop and the open-loop control device is configured to carry out a cleaning sequence to remove the blockage.