Woodside Petroleum has partnered with Swiss technology giant ABB to develop a world-first microgrid battery installation to power its offshore oil rigs.
The Goodwyn A platform will have a one megawatt-hour lithium-ion battery storage system installed on the rig, which is part of the North West Shelf project, approximately 135 kilometres off the coast of Western Australia.
This was the first time an offshore oil rig had turned to battery storage technology to reduce energy usage, the companies said.
It will replace one of the six existing gas turbine generators at the facility, reduce the need for a back-up diesel generator on the platform, and act as a "spinning reserve" for the oil rig's microgrid.
The installation can power the equivalent of 230 homes for eight hours.
ABB said a remote-control solution would also be installed, to "act as the brain of the solution". "It will also be possible to remotely operate the microgrid if the need arises or the platform has to be de-manned for any reason."
Woodside said the battery installation would reduce its fuel usage by about 2000 tonnes annually, and cut carbon emissions from the platform by 5 per cent a year.
Woodside senior vice-president Shaun Gregory said the company would use feedback from Goodwyn A to accelerate the scaling of similar battery installations at its larger onshore and offshore oil and gas assets.
The battery storage unit will be installed in the second half of 2018.
The Goodwyn A platform has a production capacity of 36,000 tonnes of gas and 11,000 tonnes of oil.
When it was built, the $2 billion Goodwyn A platform was the largest single offshore oil and gas investment ever made in Australia.
