Assessment of an Isolated Offshore Power Grid Based on the Power Hub Concept for Pre-Salt Oil and Gas Production

Towards a future with more renewable energy, oil and gas (O&G) will still play a major role in the energy and mobility sectors. Therefore, scientists must also investigate ways to mitigate carbon emissions in O&G production. In this sense, a power hub with local generation can be employed in offshore production sites to allow the adoption of more efficient power generation technologies without the weight and space constraints that exist in usual Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platforms. This power hub can be connected to the FPSOs forming an isolated offshore power grid that requires further study. This work investigates stability issues of such offshore power networks. Simulations of a system composed by the power hub and three identical FPSO units were performed in PSCAD, and the stability of the system was validated according to the IEC 61892-1 standard. Results demonstrate that it is possible to operate such system with a stable and secure supply. The main contributions of this work are the electrical modeling of the power hub and of the resulting isolated offshore electrical grid, and a detailed discussion of the rising challenges and the required models for dynamic electrical studies.