Egoli Gas saves 95% of personnel time and energy through automated network monitoring
POWER & GAS UTILITIES
Goals
- Meet customer needs while looking after network safety
- Reduce meter reading time and costs
- Improve knowledge of imported and delivered gas as well as network status in real time
Challenges
- How to implement GSM-based data acquisition technology at remote locations with power and security problems
Results
- Considerable reduction in personnel time and travelling costs
- Accurate monitoring of pressures to look after customer requirements and the network’s safety
- Reduction in maintenance personnel and effort
- Accurate reconciliation of imported and exported gas
- Speedy response to faults/issues
- Real-time knowledge of network health and status
- The system will be expanded to detect leaks and illegal taps
Solutions & Products
“Thanks to Systems Anywhere’s ingenuity and Wonderware solutions, we are one of the best if not the best utility in Johannesburg. During the extensive load-shedding of 2015, a major bank customer thanked us for our reliability and swift response in meeting the requirements of their tri-generation plants – all due to our informed personnel and information suppliers.”
Emmanuel Matodzi, Projects and Planning Engineer, Egoli Gas
Implementation
Egoli Gas selected Wonderware-certified system integrator Systems Anywhere for the implementation of this landmark project who decided to build on Egoli Gas’ existing Wonderware-based industrial information infrastructure.
Systems Anywhere designed a cost-effective solar-powered, vandal-proof logging station (Smartoos) for use at all measuring nodes to log gas volume, pressure and temperature in order to determine the gas supply conditions at all these delivery points. Readings are transmitted via private APN every 2 minutes to the Cottesloe “Starfish” with a Port-Forwarding configuration.
“This alone resulted in huge savings in terms of personnel and travelling costs as well as time,” says Matodzi. “In fact, we estimate that time and cost savings to be about 95% with 100% improvement in the quality of data – not only in its accuracy but also in its near-real-time delivery. The system also provides every department with the information they need. For example, account managers now know precisely what their key accounts are doing and can advise them accordingly and our own accountants know precisely how much gas we’re importing and distributing.”
The first glimpse into what’s happening in Egoli Gas’ network is the overview of its 24 governor stations whose job it is to reduce mainline pressure to what consumers need – like a step-down transformer in an electrical network. This InTouch screen provides a concise view of current conditions and alarms. The elimination of all manual data collection lets Egoli Gas personnel concentrate on improving customer service through the early and rapid detection and identification of irregularities in the gas distribution network before they become a problem for end-users. This is especially applicable to those users who use gas for power generation.
“This information also allows us to look after our ageing pipe network to ensure that pressure doesn’t exceed 25 kPa but is maintained above 16 kPa on the high-pressure mains,” says Matodzi. “This level of data acquisition and analysis means that Egoli Gas personnel can focus their experience and expertise on real issues and on maintenance rather than data collection. “