Part 2: Preparing to Cross the Chasm
In my last blog, I argued why the old natural gas transmission measurement paradigm of rigid, scheduled maintenance is obsolete and the market forces moving the industry toward a better, more sustainable and cost-efficient model. Shifting the paradigm to condition-based maintenance will require the confidence of the stakeholders involved – the management and technicians of the operators of the measurement stations, the partners that rely on the measurement results to conduct business transactions, and the regulators involved for oversight or taxation. For progress to be made, steps must be affordable, fit the current capabilities of the company, and demonstrate progress and results that march the company toward the ultimate goal.
We view the completion of the cycle as a stepwise, continuous improvement process to be executed over time. Let’s explore the manual solution first, an easy incremental step, and then proceed to increasingly sophisticated and automated steps.
Manual Data Aggregation
The SCADA System and Energy Management Software currently retrieves and stores the data for actual volume, standard volume, gas composition, heating value, pressure and temperature. A time-stamped report for the hourly averages of these values can be readily generated in the form of a CSV file. The CSV file can then be set up to be sent, or picked up in a secure file transfer portal, to the analytics service provider.
The manual step requires no changes to schedules for technicians who are visiting each measurement station site monthly to inspect, test, and validate the measurement equipment.
For the detailed diagnostic data, the technician downloads the monthly archive report from the USM during his visit using the OEM software provided for the meter. The two reports can be combined into a unified time stamp file, either by the company or the analytics service provider, and processed in a batch to fully analyze the previous month’s data.
Taking the Next Step is Not a Leap of Faith
Manual data aggregation requires no additional connections or data mapping to existing local devices and will be able to detect error or predictive maintenance requirements 30 days in arrears. While it does not change the existing paradigm of schedule-based maintenance, it can be used to provide the specific company data, insights, and experience necessary to justify taking the next steps toward automation of the data flow that would enable the shift and to condition-based maintenance and the benefits that ensue.
While this is just a baby step, it’s a critical proof point that once taken can position gas measurement teams to eventually leap and cross the measurement capability and cost containment chasm holding them back. That’s the topic of my next blog, so stay tuned!