FIELD: oil producing industry. SUBSTANCE: invention is to be used in diagnosing condition of sucker-rod pumping plants to prevent their failure in operation in oil fields. According to proposed method, instantaneous values of current and voltage at input of electric drive of pumping unit are measured and effective values of current and voltage are found. Then full power is determined, mean value of full power and root-mean-square deviation of full power are found and counterbalancing of pumping unit is determined by condition (σs)<(σs)st, where (σs)st is standard value of root-mean-square deviation for said plant. EFFECT: provision of reliable results of tests, ease of testing. 4 tbl, 4 dwg
