Petro Min Engineers provides consulting, engineering and design services to the power industry.
This includes power generation facilities, renewable source generation and power distribution and utilisation.
Power systems and communications
Petro Min Engineers utilises Digsilent Power Factory, Powercad and ETSA for power system analysis and protection system grading studies.
The company’s controls and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system expertise includes controls for grid connected power stations up to 65MW and stand alone islanded systems to 25MW.
The company uses a wide range of communications infrastructure including optical fibre, 400Mhz / 900Mhz radio and 2.4GHz and 4.8GHz networks for the SCADA and telemetry systems. It also uses various human machine interface (HMI) packages and systems including Citect, Wonderware and vendor proprietary software systems.
It has supplied solutions for renewable and waste energy recovery projects including several reciprocating gas engine tri generation projects, landfill gas generation, biomass waste boilers, organic rankine cycle generators and photo voltaic (PV) systems design and engineering.
These systems have been a mixture of grid connection and islanded type systems.
Power stations and distribution
Petro Min Engineers have supplied several gas turbine power station designs of up to 200MW units.
The company can design for reciprocating engine power stations from 5MW up to 65MW in both grid connected and islanded systems. These have generally been at 11kV but power stations and switchyard designs have been up to 66kV and 132kV.
Recently Petro Min Engineers has been involved in the feasibility and concept design for a 100MW islanded power station with up to 80% solar system renewables penetration in the north of Australia.
The full high-voltage (HV) systems design features analysis protection and earthing design. Full equipment specifications and data sheets for all major equipment items for tendering and evaluation purposes have also been supplied.
The work scope on these stations extends to not only the engine control and management systems but the full station controls, SCADA and remote access facilities using 3G and 4G networks and VPN systems.
SCADA and telemetry
Petro Min Engineers have designed, configured and commissioned many SCADA and telemetry systems for a range of services for both local site controls, as well as remote accessed and controlled systems from greater distances. These have included:
- Water supply bore fields, transfer pump stations, water treatment distribution
- Power stations for base load, peaking and islanded systems in remote areas
- Renewable energy projects controls and monitoring
The company has used a wide range of products in these systems from dedicated remote terminal units (RTU), to programmable logic controllers (PLC) with radio and 3G and 4G for systems remote access and alarming.
Renewable energy power generation
The company originally supplied power solutions for landfill gas power generation, wood waste to biogass, and biomass waste heat recovery systems in various states and locations.
For several years Petro Min Engineers has been involved in the design and network operator approval of solar PV systems between 30kVA and 150kVA with utility grid connections and protection.
The company has recently completed a 1,000kW grid connected system with battery storage and generation management, as well as client’s representative for a 10MW solar system with battery storage connected in parallel to an islanded diesel power system at a remote mine site.
Petro Min Engineers’ landfill gas, biogas and wood waste gas stations have ranged from 500kW up to 4MW grid connected systems at 22kV and 33kV.
Power quality investigations and remedial works
As part of generation works for grid connected systems and the final commissioning and power quality systems data logging the company has detected power quality problems that have included excessive harmonic currents, voltage distortion and flicker problems.
The company has also been invited to investigate power quality problems within existing sites that are causing operating and equipment reliability problems due to power quality. This work has involved on-site measurements, power system modelling and analysis, allowing the company to provide recommendations for remedial work such as the installation of filters, motor soft starters and variable speed drives (VSD), as well as control system changes to alleviate or mitigate problems.
After installation, Petro Min Engineers carried out follow-up on-site supervision and tests.
Pumping systems and electrical and control designs
Petro Min Engineers provides electrical engineering and design of power supplies, motor starting studies, and instrumentation and controls design for a range of pumping projects and systems throughout Australia, Papua, Africa, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and China.
This work has included the full electrical, control and instrumentation design, installation and commissioning of many systems. Several of the pumps have required large medium voltage soft starters or variable speed drives.
Alternative starting systems such as capacitor support systems for voltage stability during large motor starting have also been implemented.
Controls design for these locations has included various pumping operating scenarios to optimise cheaper off-peak power when available, and also the use of 3G or 4G systems.
For control of remotely located valves and collecting metering and tanks levels for sites without mains power the company has developed a robust solar powered package for any of a range of remote terminal unit (RTU) or controller and radio systems.
Transportable substations
Petro Min Engineers has designed a wide range of transportable substations for solar PV and light industrial applications which are customised to the client’s exact requirements. These include substations for cyclone rated areas with the tie down, fixing and footings designs included and certified.
Specific substation packages for major pump stations and ventilation fans have been developed.
The company has also designed substations for 66kV and 132kV transmission supplies down to medium voltage use for 11kV, 22kV and 33kV. These ratings have been up to 70MVA for open outdoor type substations.
Petro Min Engineers design protection systems, power systems studies, busbars and structural considerations, as well as earth and earthing systems designs.
