Simulation platform for Hybrid Energy Systems in Offshore oil & gas installations (SIM HES-OFF)

The primary objective of the proposed activity is to expose the members of the user group to cutting-edge tools for distributed real-time (RT) co-simulation available in the RWTH Aachen Real-Time Lab, specifically those included in the VILLASframework.  

Those tools are of high relevance for validating the hybrid energy system concept proposed in the project “Innovative Hybrid Energy System for Stable Power and Heat Supply in Offshore Oil & Gas Installation (HES-OFF)” funded by the Research Council of Norway under the program PETROMAKS2, grant number 281986 and executed in partnership between NTNU, CMR Prototech and Lundin Energy. 

The HES-OFF concept integrates offshore wind power, onsite gas turbines and a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) based on supercapacitors, fuel cell and electrolyzer stacks. It is expected to be an effective option to decarbonize the European offshore petroleum sector as it would allow to: 1) reduce CO2 emissions up to 40% compared to the standard power generation concept of oil and gas platforms; 2) meet the power quality and stability requirements of an isolated power system feeding an industrial process.  

The scope of the proposed activity is the implementation of a distributed RT co-simulation experiment between the RWTH Aachen Real-Time Lab and the National Smart Grid Lab in Trondheim to validate the sizing methodology and the control system performance of the HESS proposed in HES-OFF. 

The expected outcomes of the proposed activity are: 1) a simulation platform that will later be used to perform power-hardware-in-the-loop (PHIL) co-simulations between the NSGL and Prototech’s Hydro-gen Technology Laboratory (HTL) in Bergen and to demonstrate TRL5 of the HES-OFF concept; 2) in-creased competence for performing distributed RT cosimulations using the VILLASframework among ERIGrid2.0’s partner labs; 3) demonstration of the VILLASframework toolset in a wider range of applications, such as simulation of multidomain energy systems; 4) improved documentation of the VILLAS-framework project.