industries we serve
Upstream, Midstream and Downstream.
Industry Experience
Based in the Houston, TX area, the “Energy Capital of the World”, Root 3 Power principles have worked with all of the “Supermajor” energy companies. We have successfully executed engineering projects in each of the three chains of the petroleum industry: Upstream, Midstream and Downstream. With on-site experience in operations and maintenance, Root 3 Power understands the differing goals of different customers in various operating situations. We understand the value of time during a turnaround outage, the value of electrical reliability of a critical compressor in a refinery, the value of protecting asset lifespan.
We also have extensive experience in pulp & paper, chemical, generation, transmission, and distribution utilities, mining, wastewater, health care, data centers, and large school campuses.
Oil & Gas
Root 3 Power engineers have experience in oil refineries, polyethylene crackers, LNG import and export facilities, natural gas compressor stations, offshore oil processing facilities and more.
We understand the critical need for electrical reliability in the oil & gas industry because of how it is intertwined with personnel safety and the safe operation of the facility.
Root 3 Power does not treat safety and profitability as mutually exclusive goals. One does not necessitate the sacrifice of the other.
Pulp & Paper
Root 3 Power engineers have the expertise to meet the electrical challenges that are typical in the Pulp & Paper industry, specifically pertaining to large synchronous motors and islanding the electrical system while powered solely by CHP cogeneration.
Root 3 Power has experience starting large synchronous motors and protecting those motors from damage when applied with improper excitation. Root 3 Power develops solutions to meet the challenges of excitation and power factor control in the pulp & paper industry.
Root 3 Power has the ability to implement fast load shedding schemes that can successfully island a CHP-powered mill in less than 70 ms.
Chemical
The processes used to make chemicals can be especially taxing on an electrical distribution system. The electrolysis process used to manufacture chlorine uses more than 4,000 kWh/tonne. Root 3 Power can perform an industrial energy audit to improve electrical efficiency including economic analysis for capital budgeting – net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and life cycle cost (LCC).
Utilities
Root 3 Power engineers have a diverse skillset which includes experience spanning from 500kV substations to 480V motor controls. Root 3 can offer assistance in any facet of your utility’s operations, generation, transmission or distribution.
Generation:
- Generator and Generator Step-Up protective relaying.
- Communications interface with governor and excitation controls.
- Balance of plant design.
- Motor controls & Smart MCC automation.
Transmission:
Line protection relaying:
- Protection & control design, panel layouts & specifications
- ASPEN oneliner studies and modeling.
- Implementation of step-distance
- Communications-assisted schemes: POTT, DCB, DCUB
- Line current differential
Substation protection relaying:
- Breaker controls design
- Breaker failure schemes
Transformer protection relaying:
- Percent slope and instantaneous differential
- Harmonic inhibit optimization
- Restricted earth fault
Distribution:
- Loop system controls
- Fault location, isolation, & restoration (FLIR) schemes
Mining
Wastewater
Health Care & Large Commercial
To meet the requirements of NEC Article 700, life safety systems must be powered by one normally operating source and at least one alternate source. Root 3 Power engineers have developed automatic transfer solutions using relays in Medium Voltage switchgear to detect loss of one source and rapidly transfer to an alternate source. While this seems like a relatively simple task, the state-based logic can be quite sophisticated. Logic may be required to ensure that the alternate source voltage is healthy enough to handle the additional load. Logic may be required to ensure that the loss of source was not caused by a downstream fault that could be energized if a transfer is allowed to occur. Some systems require logic to block the two sources from ever being paralleled whereas other systems may allow manually initiated closed-transitions to avoid temporary losses of load.
Root 3 engineers are well versed with working with clients to establish the operating parameters of a transfer scheme and then programming a transfer scheme that meets the client’s objectives.
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR ELECTRICAL INFRASTRUCTURE