Auxiliary or Utility Systems

The auxiliary systems in the Oil & Gas industry are of fundamental importance, they include everything needed to keep the plant in production. They are many, let's see the main ones

Electrical Power Generation

In the oil fields, the use of electricity is indispensable, therefore if the field is not supplied by the Network, it is necessary to produce it on its own.
The electricity required:

• High Voltage (AC - 6,000 Volts, 11,000 Volts, 33,000 Volts, and sometimes even 120,000 Volts)
• 380 Volt (AC - three-phase motors, Thyristor, Heater, electrical Actuator etc.)
• 220 Volt (AC - Lighting)
• 110 volts (both AC and DC for emergency lighting, and also for circuit breaker auxiliaries)
• 48Volts (DC - Sometimes Used for Instrumentation)
• 24Volts ( DC - Instrumentation, Fire&Gas)
• 12 Volts ( DC - Radio Equipment)

 To ensure this supply, the plant requires:

• Turbo-alternators for electricity generation, or Gas Turbines (or the National network)
• 380 V Emergency Generator to ensure essential services in the event of a blackout
• Accumulators in series to ensure the minimum requirement even with Emergency Generator failed
• Step-Up Transformers, but also Step-Down Transformer
• Drawers to the various device
• Inverters

A partial or total shutdown of electricity causes a reduction or total stop of the entire crude oil production.

For Information: Electricity is produced in power stations using turbines and generators. A turbine converts available energy into rotation while electric generators convert rotation into electricity.

Normally, in the Oil & Gas industry, there are different configurations of Electrical Power Generation. The most commonly used are supply via a national network (120Kvolts), or the production of its own power through multiple turbines or turbo generators in parallel selectable via PCC (see Figure 123A). Consider also the that emergency system is supplied by diesel Generators. All these connections must be brought together in a single Control Panel called PCC