Redundant power supplies for offshore oilfield

BP’s choose redundant FISCO for use on their PSVM (Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte) development in Angola’s offshore Block 31 oilfield. They apply Foundation fieldbus as a technology platform and FISCO (Fieldbus Intrinsically Safe Concept) as the technology of choice for hazardous areas. The supply comprises of Redundant FISCO power supplies and field junction boxes containing Megablocks with surge protection for the network trunk. Spur short-circuit protection is already accommodated within the Megablock wiring hub. Major refinery, petrochemical and pharmaceutical companies around the globe have been seeking an intrinsically safe redundant solution that allows both ‘live working’ and support for the high device count on a fieldbus segment that drive the capital benefits of this technology. This redundant system offers high reliability, the complete installed solution from Power Conditioner through to field device is cost effective when compared to the alternatives without having to worry about mixed protection methods in the field. FISCO is defined by IEC standard 60079-27, which provides a framework for the design and implementation of intrinsically safe fieldbus networks in hazardous areas. It has found wide industry acceptance because of the benefits of intrinsic safety as the safest explosion protection technique, the clearly defined improvement in maintenance practices and the widespread recognition by national standards organisations of this technique. The 910x series power supply systems support redundant FISCO Power Conditioners and associated Supply Arbitration Modules for four fieldbus segments on a single backplane. These are designed to be fully live workable with true hot standby/failover to maintain the highest levels of system availability at all times with minimal impact to the Fieldbus network communications and no resultant loss of messages on the network during a failover or replacement of a Power Conditioner unit during operation.