MV Multi-functional Retrofit Converter for Enhanced Power Quality on O&G Platforms

Retrofit solutions have been proposed and tested on Oil and Gas (O&G) platforms to ensure modernization and efficiency improvement, and to extend the lifetime of aging platforms. In this regard, many O&G rigs, both offshore and onshore, had to employ combinations of old DC motor drives and modern AC drives assigned to critical tasks. Taking advantage of the non-simultaneous load cycles on the target O&G platform, this paper proposes a medium voltage multi-functional retrofit Three Level Neutral point clamped (NPC) converter to enhance the power quality, not only of the connected load, but also at the point of common coupling (PCC), retiring the tuned passive filters, and reducing the burden of voltage regulation on Onload tap changing transformer. The selected system is modeled in MATLAB/SIMULINK and the results with the proposed retrofit are presented in detail, while comparing with the baseline system.