An Optimization Method for a Compressor Standby Scheme Based on Reliability Analysis

Abstract

The reliability of the compressor system determines the gas supply safety. An important method to improve the reliability is to set up standby compressors in stations, conducted by the standby compressor or power. A lack of quantitative assessments of standby compressors often results in more spare compressors or power than actually needed, which wastes money. In this study, a reliability-based method is proposed to determine the numbers and positions of the standby compressors, which can reduce investments, and ensure reliability. Firstly, Monte Carlo method was used to calculate the compressor outage probability of the whole pipeline, respectively, through which the initial number of standby compressors was obtained. Further, the standby schemes were designed, in which the positions of the failed compressors were obtained by the Monte Carlo simulation. Moreover, the worst situation in which the compressors were shut down was used to test the standby scheme, calculating the flow reliability, pressure boundary, and total power. Finally, using the Xin–Yue–Zhe pipeline as a case study, the results indicate that the number of standby compressors in the improved schemes was reduced by seven and the pipeline reliability reached 96.86%.