Solar power has been a primary power technology for the oil and gas industry since the 1970s. Solar electricity continues today as the primary source of power for a variety of SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) applications.
The SCADA equipment being powered is typically low power (less than 300 watts) and is DC technology, making it ideally suited for solar power solutions at remote sites with no access to commercial power and UPS solutions at grid-connected, commercial power sites. Let’s take a look at a case study for power for automation and monitoring equipment in the Marcellus Shale Project.
Since 2003 SunWize has supported an EPC with power systems for their automation and monitoring equipment for use in the Marcellus Shale project in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York state.
The EPC is currently using systems from SunWize’s major product lines: SunWize Power Ready systems power equipment requiring 1 to 75 watts of continuous power, SunWize Power Stations power equipment requiring 75 to 300 watts of continuous power, and SunWize Power Online systems are uninterruptible power sources for equipment connected to the utility requiring 1 to 1,000 watts of continuous power. The systems have been used at remote sites where commercial power is unavailable as well as at sites where commercial power is present but a source of uninterruptable DC power is required.
SunWize’s support began with power systems for low production rate single wellheads, powering limited function monitoring and control equipment. Solutions included small SunWize Power Ready and SunWize Power Online systems. That support has evolved to now include larger-scale SunWize Power Station systems at sites with multiple wellheads that result from directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing technology. These sites have extensive monitoring devices that measure attributes such as gas flow, moisture content and level sensing.
SunWize provides an online program to determine which solar electric system will power your remote site equipment or an uninterruptable power system. Simply plug in the electrical requirements of your equipment and click the submit button. The program will determine if you require a Power Ready System, a Power Station or a Power Online System. For more information, visit www.sunwize.com.
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