As oil and gas operators ramp up their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, more and more renewable energy projects will be constructed adjacent to pipeline infrastructure and facilities. As part of this effort, a large North American pipeline Operator, with over 150,000 km of combined liquids and gas pipelines, is installing three solar farms connected into existing pump stations as a pilot project. The Operator also has seven additional solar sites already in progress and plans to install many more in multiple phases over the next few years.
These solar farms can involve the installation of hundreds to thousands of bare steel piles along with additional grounding, which could result in tens to hundreds of amps of cathodic protection current drain and compromise the corrosion protection of the Operator's assets. Additionally, the solar farm could potentially introduce alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) interference risks, both under normal operation and fault conditions. This paper explores the various risks, and discusses cathodic protection (CP) design, monitoring and interference mitigation strategies that can be implemented to address these risks.
As oil and gas operators ramp up their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, more and more renewable energy projects will be constructed adjacent to pipeline infrastructure and facilities. This can compromise the corrosion protection systems designed to protect the existing pipeline infrastructure and can result in both AC and DC interference risks. There is very little literature related to the cathodic protection (CP) system impacts and interference risks of renewable energy projects on pipeline infrastructure, and how best to mitigate the risks. This paper is intended to address this gap in the industry and broaden awareness of the potential risks as well as provide guidance on the mitigation approach employed by one pipeline operator to address these risks.
