Oil and Gas Plant Saves $2M With Improved Power Cabling Design

Challenges

It pays to double check. That’s what a contractor learned, and it was a very valuable lesson. The contractor was working with a construction company for an oil and gas plant in Calgary. He needed cable for two power distribution projects and told the Wesco Technology & Support Services (TSS) team about it. The TSS team saw significant room for improvement from the current power distribution design, which required 27 single-conductor cables, 25 kV, 750 kcmil and 1000 kcmil, with 2x27 splices. By reducing the number of cables and splices, the TSS team could decrease installation time and reduce costs.

Solutions

The Wesco TSS team utilized ETAP®—electrical engineering software that calculates underground ampacity and performs temperature analysis, among other things—to propose a new power cabling design.

The new design brought 27 single-conductor cables down to seven multiconductor cables of 25 kV, 750 kcmil and 1000 kcmil, with no splices. The previous design required the cables to be buried underground in two separate trenches, each 12.5 and 10 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 5,000 feet  

Avoiding Expensive Miscalculations

As part of Wesco’s technical expertise, the TSS team uses the latest software  and keeps up to date with standards and local codes to ensure the most cost-efficient design. They calculated a power cabling design that would save the customer $2 million on the installation, trenching, cable and splicing.

Results

The contractor was very pleased with the results of the project and the time and cost savings provided by the Wesco TSS team.