Morningstar is exhibiting at Booth 623 at the Entelec Spring Conference in Houston, TX from April 2 through April 4, 2024. Don’t miss our presentation on 4/2/24 at 11am in Room 350 E, Level 3, George R. Brown convention Center:
Solar Powering the SMARTER Digital Oilfields of Tomorrow
Remote oil & gas fields and pipelines require critical power for ”Digital Oilfield” operations, because the more than 2 million miles of pipelines and over 65,000 extraction sites around the globe (over 9,000 of those off-shore) in the majority of oil& gas extraction operations are located nowhere near an electrical grid. So in many situations, in order to get a reliable and long-life power source, solar electricity isn’t just a solution— it’s the best solution.
Solar is now established as a standard operating procedure method of powering digital oilfield operations including process automation, sensors and instrumentation, security and lighting, control and data management, pipeline integrity including cathodic protection, and much more. Solar electricity has proven to be far more cost effective over the long term than other remote powering systems such as wind and generators.
The next step in solar’s role with digital oilfield operations is full operational integration, for seamless communications and site management and control. Toward that end, new capabilities and technologies are being engineered into solar charging hardware and software to support and enable the full “embedding” of a solar powering system with existing site hardware such as PLCs and cloud-based SCADA platforms. These next-generation SNMP-enabled solar charging platforms will fully integrate into and communicate with networked systems for full functionality in IoT applications, data analytical systems, control and automation systems, and much more.
Operators interested in implementing the new smarter, fully network-able solar solutions for oil & gas applications will learn the essentials of system implementation and configuration, along with what certifications are required for compliance and safety using solar in oil and gas locations.