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

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 farms at Pump and Compressor Stations over the next few years. These solar facilities often involve the installation of thousands of bare or galvanized 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 the solar facilities and ongoing CP system monitoring and is a follow-up to AMPP Paper C2023-190901 which focused on the design considerations.