Power generation is evolving as new frontiers are explored and cheaper ways of operating are discovered. One of the top trends hitting this sector is dual fuel technology, according to regional power generation experts
Electricity is the lifeblood of the Oil & Gas business, without it, extraction ceases to happen, pipelines stop and operations grind to a halt. Temporary power plants, such as generators are the key to maintaining successful upstream operations.Power generation is very much a growth market, with new sites and new power generation methods to be explored.
“Demand for power has risen dramatically we have found over the last couple of years in the Oil & Gas space. Demand for new technology and demand for cheaper ways of operating are there. We are finding less and less in terms of sensitivity when it comes to costs, compared to the rest of the market. Oil & Gas companies are prepared to pay because they need absolute guarantee of supply for the applications that they are involved in,” says Patrick Fallon, COO, Byrne Rental.
Byrne says that year-on-year it is seeing tremendous growth in the Oil & Gas power generation space, particularly in countries like Saudi, Oman, and in the UAE with the development of Zadco, which is now employing different types of drilling expertise to extract oil.
For upstream clients the continuous supply of power is absolutely vital. In a way, the specific nature of supplying power to upstream or offshore plants means firms have to ensure products are top spec, as the alternative, a major power outage, simply isn’t an option.
“The major point to be considered is the reliability and uninterrupted supply of power,’ said Mostafa Al-Guezeri, president, ABB Transmission & Distribution. A failure of power can not be afforded, because it could lead to stoppage of offshore oil or gas exploration process and result at least in significant decrease of industrial productivity and major loss in revenue. Additionally the space constraints are a challenge for power generation in an offshore facility, for example.”
Terry McGuire, general manager of power and industrial, Famco (Al-Futtaim Auto and Machinery and Co) says that over the last few years there has been a paradigmatic shift in behaviour within the power transmission field.
“The market is becoming more challenging due to the current economic situation. The influx of low-cost product and the fact that contracting companies are maintaining instead of replacing existing stock. The trend in previous years was to replace generator sets after three years, whereas now, maintenance programmes are becoming far more prevalent,” he said.
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Dual Fuel
Another trend according to Al-Guezeri is utilising hybrid power to ensure consistent power supply, in the event of maintenance to the plant, or extraction site.
“Temporary power is practically only for smaller production capacity. Smaller engines are less efficient than larger machines. Unless it is in a remote area far away from a grid/network, temporary power generation solutions may not be a viable solution.
Considering the efficiency and OPEX of such plants we foresee more usage of hybrid power plants using solar. Currently ABB is one of the world leaders in providing turnkey solutions for such power plants.”
As a result, McGuire identifies rental companies, and contracting companies as the strongest sector within the power generation and transmission market.
Dual fuel generators are powered by two different types of fuel either from a single engine or two different engines depending on the size of the generator and the amount of power needed. This can vary from portable generators powered by a gas cylinder to large industrial generators.
These types of generators are essential for areas where the gas supply is not always available, or where diesel fuel may be contaminated, or hard to get hold of, this applies particularly in the remote and often underdeveloped areas that Oil & Gas exploration and production often frequent.
Dual fuel generators are often the most economical generators you can have and increase the flexibility of supplying power as they run on both gas and diesel using an advanced fuel system, and they are able to operate in many different gas/diesel combinations ranging from 100%/0% to 30%/70%.
Duel fuel generators are suitable for different types of gas such as natural gas, sewage gas and landfill gas. They are available in fixed or variable diesel gas full combinations and there is diesel assistance to backing up the gas should the system suddenly fail.
The mode is selected automatically depending on the current situation and the automatic switch will change the dual fuel generator to diesel if the gas supply does happen to fail and this happens immediately so the power coverage is not interrupted and continues to run smoothly.
This is the biggest benefit of having one of these generators especially in essential Oil & Gas operations. Duel fuel generators are becoming popular and are normally run on natural gas or LP vapour fuel combined with diesel and the most effective ones are those run on diesel and natural gas.
Diesel has been used for so long in back-up generators it is renowned for its reliability and provides good back-up power in remote areas where the gas supply can fail or run out, in which case the automatic switch immediately kicks in switching the generator to diesel.
Natural gas has the benefit of a long running time and is more environmentally friendly than diesel which is why dual fuel generators using this combination of natural gas and diesel is better for the environment than a solely run diesel generator. A popular choice is a generator that burns natural gas and diesel at the same time using a single engine.
It starts by using 100% diesel as the pilot fuel and as the built-in control brings in the natural gas, which has a higher temperature than the diesel, the engine will automatically reduce the amount of diesel coming in so the optimal fuel mix is 75% natural gas – 25% diesel when running on full capacity.The only point against having a dual fuel generator is the fact that the larger ones are most expensive than those burning just one fuel.
But although the initial outlay may be higher for the generator the company is saving money on electricity and fuel storage, and is helping the environment because natural gas has low gas emissions and is are saving fuel storage space.
