Electrical power systems on offshore facilities shall be designed with an emergy power system that shall ensure supply of electrical power to critical consumers in the event of main power supply failure. Traditionally, electrical power systems offshore have been designed with a dedicated emergency power system, independent of the main power system.
In parts of the industry, solutions without dedicated emergency power systems have been developed, for example by dividing the main power system physically and logically into segregated zones independent of each other and redundant. Even if new solutions may fulfil the intentions for safe power supply to critical consumers, these solutions may be formally in conflict with the regulatory requirements.
The Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority decided they needed to obtain more knowledge and experience with established as well as novel solutions with respect to emergency power systems and asked Unitech Power Systems for assistance in carrying out an in-depth study. The study is now complete and published at can be downloaded from the Petroleum Safety Authority's web page (in Norwegian).
