A large methanol plant built for a joint venture in Saudi Arabia was struggling with severe reliability issues following startup. In the nine months after commissioning, onstream time averaged below 60%, causing the operator to miss critical customer deliveries. The joint venture partners were threatening legal action due to the plant’s inability to meet contractual obligations.

Investigations revealed that most downtime events were triggered by short-duration voltage spikes on the external electricity grid. Although the transmission operator had committed to addressing the grid instability, their plan would take two years to complete. The client needed an immediate, site-level solution to stabilize operations and protect production performance in the interim.

Caravel Solutions mobilized a multidisciplinary team of four experts, each specializing in a different technical field, to conduct a rapid on-site assessment. Over the course of one week, the team reviewed operational data, interviewed site personnel, and analyzed process and control system vulnerabilities to external power disturbances.

The assessment identified five critical engineering oversights from the original project design phase that significantly increased the plant’s sensitivity to voltage fluctuations. These design flaws were directly linked to the frequent trips and restarts that had plagued operations since startup. Caravel developed a targeted mitigation plan that could be executed safely and swiftly to correct the deficiencies.

Under Caravel’s supervision, the plant executed a three-day planned outage to implement the corrective actions.

The improvements not only stabilized production and restored customer confidence but also prevented further contractual and legal disputes among the joint venture partners. The site regained operational credibility and established a strong foundation for long-term performance.