Offshore operators face some of the most challenging conditions on earth. Most wellhead platforms are unmanned for several months of the year, so having reliable and continuous on-site power in any weather is a necessity.
Environmental factors like storms and extreme weather can affect not only power availability but can also impede access to the site to resolve any unexpected outages. Considering these conditions, highly reliable power generation is needed for continuous operation of critical loads, including SCADA, instrumentation, communications, navigational aids, and valve operation.
Traditional power solutions such as gen-sets can be unreliable, high maintenance, harmful to the environment, and pose risks to both safety and platform production. A 100% Photovoltaic (PV) generation system requires no fuel but does require a large footprint with large panels and large battery backup banks to achieve the desired reliability and availability.
In contrast, thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are ideal for unattended, continuous operation on remote unmanned platforms and do not require battery backup. Combining Photovoltaics (PV) and thermoelectric generators (TEGs) offers very high-reliability power, low carbon emissions, smaller footprint, and weight due to fewer PV panels, and less reliance on battery backup.
This paper summarizes best practices for sizing TEG/PV Hybrid systems, then compares the total cost of ownership (TCO) to other forms of offshore power generation. Load sizing, reliability, footprint, maintenance intervals, capital, and operating costs are also considered. It is concluded that for platforms, TEG/PV Hybrid systems provide lower TCO and higher production uptime. Furthermore, TEGs are a clean-burning technology where their emissions demonstrate the negligible carbon impact that is a result of their gas incineration capabilities.
Reducing environmental footprint is at the forefront of today's energy transition as we drive towards achieving carbon neutrality. Selecting a power system that can reduce its impact on the environment without sacrificing reliability, safety and production uptime is paramount.
