Solutions Energy

Cybernetica’s applications for the energy sector implement creative, tailor-made control- and optimisation solutions for critical operations.

Typical benefits

  • Stabilised plant behaviour
  • Operation closer to equipment- and process constraints
  • Increased production and throughput
  • Reduced energy consumption
  • Reduced emissions

Example control applications

  • Automatic control of production chokes towards well- and topside-constraints
  • Stabilised control of inlet separator(s) resulting in increased production
  • Improved and multivariable control of the water injection process
  • Optimal buffering of liquid slugs in separators and drums resulting in increased production
  • Quality and capacity control of NGL production in extraction and fractionation units at gas processing plants
  • Flexible and energy-optimal control of CO2 capture plants
  • Energy-optimal control of district heating networks while fulfilling dynamic requirements of all customers

Our services for the energy sector

  • Turnkey model predictive control applications
  • Process simulators
  • Soft sensing and operator support systems
  • Consulting
  • Tuning and configuration of PID controllers
  • Software licensing and development

Industries

  • Oil & Gas
  • CO2 capture
  • District heating

Dynamic energy solutions

Industrial facilities within the energy sector are highly influenced by operational transients and dynamic disturbances. To address the sector’s challenges, we deliver advanced, multivariate control solutions that continuously manipulate operating variables to account for measured, estimated and anticipated disturbances. Our deliveries result in digital solutions that consistently reach maximum plant performance. Our applications use efficient estimation algorithms to correct our dynamic models online to avoid model degradation and maintain reliable plant predictions.

 

 

Modelica library for Oil & Gas applications

Cybernetica has developed an in-house Modelica library for building digital twins optimised for soft sensing and control purposes. The library contains models for typical Oil & Gas unit processes and can be used to build computationally efficient models for large-scale production plants.

The Modelica models can be used with Cybernetica’s products for model-based estimation and control through the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI). The result is shorter development time for both small- and large-scale Oil & Gas control applications based on mechanistic models.

 

Case Model Predictive control to maximise oil export at Ivar Aasen

Changes in flow compositions and operational disturbances are challenging when it comes to maximising production in an oil- and gas plant, considering safety-, design- and production constraints. The PID setpoints in the production facilities are usually chosen at fixed conservative and comfortable values to ensure high regularity. These margins often lead to loss in throughput.

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Case Handling of liquid slugs – Avoid reduction in production

Slugging in wells, pipelines and risers represents a major type of plant disturbance for several offshore facilities. The result will sometimes be throttled production from these specific sources, in order to avoid separator level alarms, with possible plant shut-down as a consequence. A significant production potential may therefore be lost. Improved slug handling is obtained by coordinated actions of several liquid level controllers (LICs).

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Case CO2 capture

Cybernetica develops model-based solutions for amine-based CO2 capture plants. A project receiving financial support from Gassnova, and with SINTEF, NTNU and Technology Centre Mongstad as the other partners, aims at demonstrating how capture plants can operate more effectively using Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC). The capture plants are complex, interconnected processes with a variety of unit operations.

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