Abstract
Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC). KNPC operates three (3) refineries viz., Mina Al-Ahmadi (MAA), Shuaiba (SHU) and Mina Abdulla (MAB). KPC internal directives required the implementation of a management process to optimize energy consumption through the formation of energy management cells (EMCs), which implemented an energy management program based on best international practices.
This paper describes the tasks performed to develop and implement real time, online models, to help with the three KNPC refineries energy cost minimization and energy management, which are scheduled to perform it automatically. They allow to clearly identify the different economic trade-offs that challenges the operation of the site wide energy systems at minimum cost while reducing the energy waste and, therefore, CO2 footprint. Recommendations given by the optimizers are taken into account by operations on a daily basis.
The same models used for the online, real time optimization, are also used in standalone mode, populated either with current or historical data, allowing to perform case studies for planning or to evaluate alternatives for a better and most economical operation of the energy systems.
As a result of the project, the information of each refinery energy system has been organized into models and reports to which everyone has access.
