ABB solutions to help the efficiency and stability of the power network at Sadaf Jubail petrochemical complex

ABB solutions has announced that it will help the efficiency and stability of the power network at Saudi Arabia's Sadaf Jubail petrochemical complex, and also integrate electrical control systems in its six petrochemical plants, as per Datamonitor. A two-part power factor and power management solution will significantly increase the power factor of the site's power network, and integrate the electrical and process information management systems at the site's six manufacturing facilities into a single, unified system.Owned by Saudi Arabian Petrochemical Company (Sadaf) and located at Al Jubail on the Gulf coast, the complex is one of the largest petrochemical sites in the world, producing over 4.7 mln tpa of petrochemicals. Although much of Sadaf Jubail's vast electricity requirements are provided by the site's 250 megawatt (MW) cogeneration plant and 50 MW heat recovery plant, the power network's energy losses have to be offset with large imports from the grid. A low power factor also runs the risk of incurring substantial penalties from the grid operator. ABB conducted network analyses to measure the site's power consumption and power losses, and proposed a solution comprising nine capacitor banks to correct the power factor and stabilize operations of the rectifiers in the energy-hungry electrolysis process. The power correction solution will be interfaced with the second part of the ABB project: an advanced power management system (PMS) that will integrate the site's electrical control systems in accordance with the IEC 61850 standard on electrical integration. The solution is based on ABB's flagship automation platform, System 800xA. Systems integrated by the PMS include the excitation controllers, governor controllers, synchronizers, kilowatt-hour meters, tapchanger transformers, chlorine rectifier controllers, protection and control units of the site's 16 substations, motor control units, and the complex's distributed control system and process information management system. The PMS will improve network stability and optimize the power factor at the grid connection point by controlling the power plant and nine capacitor banks. The solution includes a plant-wide contingency load shedding function that is continuously calculating how much load to shed if demand exceeds supply. It automatically trips non-critical loads and decreases the rectifier set-points to match site power consumption with the amount of power generated. The solution will become operational in 2011.