Renovation for More Reliability: Upgrading a Large, Oil Refinery Electric Power System

PARAGUANA REFINING CENTER (CRP) in Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) is the largest oil-refining complex in the world, with a distillation capacity of 900,000 bbl/d. It is located in the Paraguana Peninsula, Falcon State, Venezuela. CRP services two large refineries: Amuay and Cardon. Amuay capacity is 640,000 bbl/d. Currently, Amuay's daily average electric consumption is about 121 MW; 107 MW are associated to process loads, and 14 MW are for the residential area and refinery offices. The refinery has an installed generating capacity of 182 MW; 84 MW are based in gas turbines, and 98 MW in steam turbines. There are four gas turbogenerators (TGs) and seven steam TGs (Figs. 1 and 2).