How Oil and Gas Industry is Adopting Advanced Lighting

Abhrasnata Das

In an oil and gas facility, there are areas with a lot of vibration, trash, chemicals, and potential explosives that pose a great threat to the workplace safety. These factors in turn, not only make lighting luminaire selection crucial, but they also have a big impact on the lifespan and performance of light luminaires used in these applications. Operations and maintenance resources are required to quickly service and maintain correct illumination levels in order to provide the highest level of safety for both people and equipment, sometimes at a high cost and in challenging installation sites.

However, for decades the oil and gas platforms have been powered using the fluorescent or incandescent light bulbs. These lighting solutions are far from perfect and require constant maintenance that ends up in continual drainage of power. Moreover, with constant need for repair of smashed or worn out light bulbs and increasing power prices, a viable, reliable and affordable lighting solution seems imperative.

That being said, in this article let's look at some of the latest oil and gas lighting solution trends that are sought to drive the way in the future.

Auto Start / Stop Option

Traditionally, light towers have had basic controls. However, one major evolution is an automatic start and stop control option. This feature allows the light tower to automatically turn on and off based on ambient light dusk to dawn or as programmed by the operator, similar to a lamp timer in your home.

Oil and gas job sites typically require 10 or more light towers, often spread over miles or acres of remote terrain. Requiring an employee to locate and turn on and off each light tower is a time-consuming process. The auto start and stop option eliminates the time and cost of sending an employee to complete the task, gaining greater efficiency and productivity.

Recently, Atlas Copco, a Swedish industrial tool manufacturing entity came up with a battery-powered light tower, the HiLight Z3+, is powered entirely by a lithium-ion battery and charges directly from a grid or portable generator supply units, meaning it produces zero emissions and uses zero fuel.

Moreover, these solar power light towers are turned off automatically detecting the lighting condition without the need for any manual intervention.

Solar-powered light towers are best for use in remote places that are difficult to get trucks to for refueling,” says Jeff Hock, Wanco’s VP of operations. “If you have solar panels to capture the sun, the unit will keep going for a long time without having to worry about getting fuel trucks to do oil changes or maintenance,” he adds.

Led lights in place of fluorescent

As the cost and quality of traditional metal-halide lights become more competitive, the trend toward light-emitting diode (LED) lamps continues to gain traction. The initial cost of LED fixtures is higher than that of metal-halide lights, however this is immediately compensated by their fuel economy, cheaper running costs, and longer runtimes.

LED lamps are roughly twice as efficient as metal-halide lights in terms of fuel efficiency, which means they can run for twice as long on the same quantity of gasoline. The Doosan Portable Power LCV6 light tower, for example, offers a 119-hour runtime with four metal-halide lamps. When that same light tower is outfitted with LED lights, the runtime increases to 210 hours. Longer runtimes also mean fewer work interruptions for refilling and reduced traffic from fuel trucks.

Emerson Electric, a Fortune 500 company located in the United States, has unveiled a new solution for the oil and gas sector that makes it simple and safe to illuminate land-based drilling rigs. Installing and maintaining bright, energy-efficient lighting in dangerous locations on drilling rigs is made easier with the Appleton Rigmaster LED linear luminaire.

“Rig maintenance workers require linear luminaires that are rugged and long lasting yet compact and easy-to-install, which can be a difficult solution to find for the engineers responsible for designing rig electrical systems,” says Mustafa Bengali, Lighting Product Manager for Emerson Automation Solutions.

Composite Material

Manufacturers of light towers are increasingly using composite materials, notably for enclosing components, according to recent design trends. Composite materials have enabled design advancements not conceivable with steel, resulting in a machine that is smaller, lighter, and more durable than ever before. The materials have shown to be resistant to impacts and the severe conditions that are frequent in drilling. The long-term durability gives you peace of mind while lowering your maintenance expenditures.

Looking Forward

Oil and gas industry is critical for any and every nation and optimum and continuous operability of the plants is crucial. Power system failures, even minor ones, can result in costly outages or loss of product. Hence, utilization of efficient lighting and power solutions is imperative, to ensure profitability.
Looking forward, with the introduction of novel technologies like automation, IoT, AI and more, oil and gas lighting solutions are expected to take a more smart, robust and cost-efficient shape.