How does ‘designing-in’ permanent thermal monitoring of mission critical electrical infrastructure lead to improvements in the operational safety and reliability of acomplex oil & gas facility?

As the complexity of technology used in installations increases, some regions of the world may find it hard to source and recruit suitably skilled personnel. This can lead to a gap developing between the skills required to commission and maintain the facility and those that are available. In addition, this reliance on human inspection can lead to a lack of uniformity of inspection integrity across global sites. Such a gap can lead to a major reduction in the safe and reliable operation of the facility. To minimise this gap companies are using the extensive experience of permanent monitoring in rotating equipment & considering permanent monitoring solutions in ‘static’ electrical infrastructure. This paper will examine the example of a major O&G operating company integrating permanent non-contact infrared based thermal monitoring in the low voltage (LV) and medium voltage (MV) systems for a major project in Eurasia.