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Saft’s lithium-ion (Li-ion) VL cells have overcome significant technical challenges to provide reliable operation for subsea oil and gas systems.
Oil and gas flow equipment manufacturer Cameron turned to Saft’s VL cells when it wanted to solve the problem of powering its innovative standalone subsea choke, a type of valve which controls the flow of oil or natural gas between wells and manifolds during the seabed operation of offshore fields. Traditionally, subsea chokes have been powered hydraulically but there is a growing trend in subsea equipment to replace hydraulics with electrical drives. These have the advantages of faster and smoother response and real-time feedback on performance and valve position, as well as eliminating the possible leakage of hydraulic fluid into the sea.
But the challenge is to provide enough power to operate the choke at depths of up to 3,000 metres when it’s not practical to run a cable that will meet the high peak power demands. Saft Li-ion batteries provide the ideal solution:
The peak power demanded by the choke actuators is significantly higher than the power supplied to the Subsea Control Module. The Saft Li-ion VL cells therefore take the role of closing the power gap by storing enough power for a full opening or closing operation of the choke, a process which takes up to four and a half minutes. This energy storage solution needs to meet the duty of operating several times a day in exceptional circumstances, plus the choke’s normal daily duty, reliably throughout the 25-year design life of the subsea equipment.
Cameron’s solution is to use state-of-the-art Saft Li-ion VL cells, maintained on a float charge by a standard 24 V 48 W DC power supply.
Our stringent supplier evaluation process confirmed that Saft VL Li-ion cells not only covered all our technical requirements, they could also meet our commercial considerations regarding price and delivery against our development schedule.
Jan van den Akker Cameron’s Product Manager ControlsTo ensure we can respond as efficiently as possible. Please complete this form which will be delivered to our team of experts who will help you with your enquiry.
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