Implications of Solar Facilities on Adjacent Pipeline Infrastructure – Commissioning and Monitoring

Paper ID: C2025-00237 ABSTRACT: As oil and gas operators ramp up their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, more and more renewable energy projects will be constructed adjacent to pipeline infrastructure and facilities. As part of this effort, a major North American pipeline Operator, has initiated a program to install numerous solar self-power (SSP) systems at Pump and Compressor Stations over the next few years.
These solar facilities often involve the installation of thousands of bare steel piles, which could compromise the corrosion protection of the operator’s assets. Additionally, the solar facility could potentially introduce AC and DC interference risks, and itself be subjected to interference from existing cathodic protection (CP) systems. This paper focuses on the findings during commissioning of three solar facilities and ongoing CP system monitoring and is a follow-up to C2023-19090 which focused on CP design considerations.