The company expects the STS will prevent 20 to 30 power disturbances each year, translating to an additional 30,000 barrels of oil each year, it said.

CPI said storms, lightning strikes and other factors caused frequent power outages that disrupt island-based oil field operations, resulting in many hours of lost production.

But now, if an electrical disturbance occurs at CPI’s Kelok and Tilan oil fields in Sumatra, the STS will automatically switch the power to a secondary line in a fraction of a voltage cycle – less than one-sixtieth of a second – ensuring continuous power to the fields’ pumping equipment, the company said.

"This is a great pilot project for CPI. We believe it will deliver the results as planned, and we’re looking forward to increasing our annual production through this technology," CPI general manager of power generation and transmission Noor Bambang Siswoyo said.

Over the past decade, the medium-voltage STS has increased reliability in semiconductor and semiconductor tools manufacturing facilities, CPI said.

A new market for STS technology could open up, if it proved successful in improving oil production operations, according to the company.

Chevron Energy Solutions, which developed the power reliability project, said the STS application showed promise for remote oil fields facing reliability issues with its power grid connection.

"There is growing demand for solutions to increase production in upstream oil operations," CES president Jim Davis said.

“Over time, we hope to be able to offer similar solutions to other upstream operations.”