Most rigs generate power from diesel fuel or from bi-fuel systems that use diesel and natural gas. The generators produce significantly more peak power than the rig consumes, resulting in wasted power and associated excessive fuel consumption, increased emissions, higher maintenance costs, and elevated diesel trucking requirements, particularly in remote Alberta drilling environments.
The Caterpillar Dynamic Gas Blending (DGB) Gen 2 Kit enables the controlled substitution of pipeline or raw natural gas for diesel in diesel engines, reducing diesel consumption. The CAT 3512G delivers stable, high-efficiency power from natural gas, reducing reliance on diesel-fired generation. The Caterpillar hybrid Battery Energy Storage System (ESS) supplies instantaneous power to absorb load spikes from top drives, mud pumps, and auxiliary systems, maintaining frequency stability and reducing generator cycling.
These Caterpillar technologies, supplied and supported by Finning in Western Canada, are integrated and controlled by Caterpillar’s Microgrid Master Controller (MMC) and Smart Engine Management System (Smart EMS), which together optimize generator dispatch, fuel substitution, and power quality under highly variable drilling loads. Overall, this combination will reduce drilling power costs by displacing diesel, lower energy (and emissions) intensity and trucking requirements, and increase drilling efficiency.
This project will build on a previous ERA-funded project by demonstrating the technology at full scale on two active drilling rigs within Tourmaline’s fleet. The deployment represents a full-scale demonstration to validate the performance under real-world drilling conditions, including high transient loads and continuous operations.