Abstract
The Norwegian government has the ambition to decarbonize the offshore petroleum sector while retaining its international competitiveness. Considering that individual electrification of platforms from shore is both inefficient and expensive, the centralization of the heat and power generation at an offshore hub is thought to have the potential to be an energy and cost-efficient solution. This paper aims to develop an innovative cost-efficient concept for a clean offshore energy hub for supplying low-carbon heat and power to existing offshore oil and gas cluster. The simulations were performed using Oogeso, an optimization tool used to study the optimal operation of offshore energy systems. In summary, the concept is based on an offshore wind farm supplying a cluster of offshore platforms, with energy storage, electrolyzer, and fuel cells added to smooth out fluctuations in wind power. Two different variations of this concept are analyzed and compared by evaluating metrics such as wind power curtailment and hydrogen usage. The results have shown that a hybrid system using renewable energy sources can successfully power a cluster of offshore oil and gas platforms.
