Overcoming Power Outages and Disturbances in Power Lines in ESP Operations

Abstract The Project was developed in a field with more than 1350 wells with 5 ½" casings and depths between 1600 and 2800 m. The goal is to optimize equipment behavior after power outages and power line disturbances. The need to optimize arises due to failures of different types, ending in stopped equipment with a low percentage of automatic restarts (14%), generating loss of time, deferred production and movement of equipment and personnel. The study analyzed the behavior of electrical interruptions and power disturbances that occurred in medium voltage lines during the second half of 2021 and in the first months of 2022. Different protection configurations were tested for both variable speed drives and switchboards, so that the number of devices that could start automatically could be maximized, while ensuring the integrity of the electric submersible equipment (ESP). A first group of settings was evaluated in the first quarter of 2022, showing a significant improvement in relation to previous behaviors. A second setup campaign was carried out, reaching a satisfactory level of response. Approximately 1350 wells were modified at the surface and remotely using the SCADA system. Lost time was reduced by mitigating overload failures, while the ESP system was kept within a safe insulation condition. These improvements came about by eliminating premature failures, reducing rig usage to perform extractions, and optimizing the submersible system to handle power disturbance conditions. As a result of this work, the equipment that cannot start automatically have changed from almost 90% to a value around 20%. This article shows how to approach the main problem through the analysis of the data obtained from the field and proposes a solution that can be extrapolated to other fields, regardless of the characteristics of the installed equipment. Having a reduction of interventions is translated as less carbon emissions (less rig interventions, less rounds of specialized personnel to the wells, etc).