Petrobras to evaluate deploying a microgrid in major pre-salt field

Brazil’s federal oil firm Petrobras plans to carry out a study to evaluate the technical feasibility of interconnecting the electrical systems of the four FPSOs in the Mero field in the Santos basin, a source familiar with the matter told BNamericas. 

There are currently two FPSOs (Guanabara and Sepetiba) operating in the pre-salt asset, and another two (Marechal Duque de Caxias and Alexandre de Gusmão) are scheduled to come online in 2024 and 2025. 

With the four platforms, Mero will have the capacity to produce up to 720,000b/d of oil and process 48 million cubic meters per day of natural gas.  

Petrobras is proposing a microgrid with the aim of sharing the platforms' electricity generation system.

The microgrid to interconnect the four offshore production units is an unprecedented system in the industry, with the potential benefit of increasing reliability in the platforms' power generation system. 

As a result, it is expected to reduce gas emissions and increase the supply of energy for complementary projects with subsea processing and pumping, since the units would share the backup generator, leaving one generator to operate continuously. 

The research could produce information that will support the need to develop high-voltage submarine cables for pre-salt conditions, a submarine electrical panel for the desired voltage level, surface equipment to enable interconnection and the possibility of integration with an external wind energy source. 

The study will be carried out with Petrobras’ partners in the Mero field (Shell, TotalEnergies, CNOOC and CNPC) and electricity research center Cepel.