Load Banks In The Oil & Gas Sector

Crestchic has many years experience in testing and commissioning in the oil and gas industries and has been involved in large projects around the world and has recently successfully completed a 50MVA test for an onshore oil pumping station in the Far East.

Key Factors

• Commissioning turbines destined for offshore use using load banks is essential, as a failure can be difficult and expensive to rectify once the platform is at sea.
• Loss of production revenue can be millions of dollars.
• The testing involves incremental steps up to full load, to check turbine parameters for both fuel consumption and different types of fuel. In addition, monitoring vibration, temperature and airflow will ensure peak efficiency once the facility is on station and working to capacity.
• At the same time, it is possible to simulate the effect of a large block load being introduced or withdrawn, e.g. a pump or compressor, measuring the recovery interval (‘transient response’) until the engine speed returns to normal.
• This mitigates against the risk that the engine does not recover and the alternator fails.
• Decommissioning – not sufficient load for existing generation equipment, which cannot be replaced out. Load banks can be used to ensure efficiency of equipment.