Case Study of Integrating an Offshore Wind Farm with Offshore Oil and Gas Platforms and with an Onshore Electrical Grid

This research project explored the technical feasibility of utilizing an offshore wind farm as a supplementary power source to several electrical grids of offshore oil and gas platforms and providing surplus power to an onshore grid. Three case studies comprising wind farms rated at 20？MW, 100？MW, and 1000？MW have been studied with the focus on (i) the operation benefits of CO2/NOx emission reduction, (ii) the electrical grid stability, and (iii) the technical implementation feasibility. The proposed 20？MW, 100？MW, and 1000？MW wind farm cases are theoretically feasible in terms of the selected technical criteria, although further detailed design operational studies, and economical analysis are required. 1. Introduction The successful pilot operation of Statoil’s floating Hywind 2.3？MW wind turbine unit has proven the new technology to capture wind energy within deep water environments. It has also demonstrated the potential to utilize the excellent wind resource nearby offshore oil and gas platforms where the water depth is from a hundred to several hundred meters. An offshore oil and gas platform often consists of many energy consuming facilities including drilling, accommodation, processing, exporting, and injection. The current electrical power consumption at a platform on Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) is often in the range from 10？MW to several hundreds of MW. The NCS is a mature petroleum province and the energy consumption per produced unit will grow. Offshore platforms are facing increasingly tougher challenges to operate in an environmentally acceptable manner. Most platforms on NCS generate their own electrical power by gas turbines. The gas turbines are also used to directly drive compressors and pumps. These gas turbines generate about 80% of the total CO2 and emissions from offshore installations [1]. Accordingly, this research project explored the technical feasibility of utilizing wind farms as a supplementary power source to offshore oil and gas platforms and to provide surplus power to an onshore grid. 2. Three Study Cases Three case studies comprising wind farms rated at 20？MW, 100？MW, and 1000？MW have focused on (i) the operation benefits of CO2/ emission reduction, (ii) electrical grid stability, and (iii) the technical implementation feasibility. The first case (20？MW) is the integration of a small offshore wind farm with a stand-alone electrical grid on the offshore oil and gas platform. The second case (100？MW) is the extension of the first case. To utilize more wind power, a 100？MW wind farm is connected to five nearby oil and