From LPG and kerosene for
domestic consumption to
automotive, fuels and
lubricants for vehicles, to feedstock
and fuels for industrial
applications, Bharat Petroleum
Corporation Limited (BPCL)
touches the lives of 700 million
Indians in some way every day.
The node of the company's
operations, its refinery in Mahul,
Mumbai is one of the most modern
and environment-friendly
refineries in the country, producing
eight million tonnes of processed
oil products per annum.
Emerson Network Power's
'Uptime Solutions' work in the
background of this refinery,
helping operations run smoothly
and seamlessly.
Situation
India is the second largest oil
company in terms of market share,
Bharat Petroleum's network is
spread all over India.
Presently, BPCL is processing
nearly 25,000 tonnes of crude oil
per day, which will be enhanced to
36,000 tonnes after completion of
refinery modernisation project
(RMP), which is complying with
Euro III requirement.
Losses in the event of a plant
shutdown would result in
catastrophic losses. All steps are
thus taken to prevent failures and
create an uptime solution as failproof
as possible.
Role of power conditioning in a
refinery
Power is critical to a refinery - it is
the lifeline on which the DCS
rooms, the heart of all processing
operations, run24x7. Any failure
even for the briefest duration of 10
msec can lead to a total shutdown
of the plant. Re-starting the plant is
then not simply a couple of hours
work but requires a minimum of 2-
3 days. Considering that BPCL
processes nearly 25,000 tonnes of
crude oil per day, downtime loss at
a bare minimum is Rs 15-20 crore
per day. No wonder then that most
refineries opt for captive power
plants and utilise the grid as their
backup source of power.
Apart from the urgent need to
prevent failures, a refinery is always
on the lookout to prevent a fire -
from the simplest task of banning
mobile phones (which are live
battery cells) anywhere on the
premises to hi-tech fire-prevention
strategies, operation managers are
overly cautious towards
maintaining temperatures at
....CONTD
