Are there risks associated with testing turbine-generator sets prior to acceptance? "Mr. Murphy thinks so"

A paper entitled "Are all electric platforms viable in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM)" [Voltz, D.A. et al.] was presented at the 2002 PCIC. The paper concluded that it is economically feasible to use central electric generating plants to power all the loads on floating offshore oil and gas producing facilities in the Gulf of Mexico as well as other locations. Some recent projects in the Gulf of Mexico have followed this approach and in doing so, are providing several identical turbine-generator sets, rated 13.8 kV, 29 MVA, for powering three separate floating offshore platforms. Since these turbine-generator (T/G) packages are the sole source of power on these facilities, there has been an increased emphasis given to the testing program. The program required that each part of the package be tested individually (i.e. turbine, generator, turbine control panel, generator control panel, voltage regulator, etc.) and then each package be tested as an assembled unit, in a "string test". The testing program went one step further in requiring that two of the identical units be connected in parallel for the application and rejection of different load steps and to verify real and reactive load sharing. This additional testing was conducted to verify the performance of the control and governing systems and to satisfy the requirements of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and the United States Coast Guard.