Industrial pumps operating with variable speed provides numerous benefits including valve elimination, wide range of flow rate, single stage higher head and energy saving. The realization of variable speed pump operation is carried out using an induction motor, power electronic switches, current sensors and controller without speed feedback is known as sensorless variable speed control. This paper implements a field-oriented control based sensorless scheme on 150 kW induction motor drive system, which is integrated to centrifugal pump load in Matlab/Simulink environment. The centrifugal pump is modelled mathematically in the same environment for obtaining the identical torque speed characteristics. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.