Pressure management of low pressure gas distribution networks

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Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£6,679,580

April 11, 2021

April 12, 2022

Methane leakage from gas distribution networks is a serious financial and environmental issue.

* Methane's impact on global warming is 84 times greater than CO2(1)

* Gas lost globally is estimated at 300,000 GWh or £16 billion p.a.

* The impact on global warming is equivalent to 1,700 million tCO2e.

Other than replacing pipes, which has a massive capital cost, the only means of reducing leakage is through improved pressure management in the network. As leakage is proportional to the pressure in the pipes, a 20% pressure reduction results in 20% less leakage.

Currently, pressure is controlled by thousands of gas governors (26,000 in the UK). The majority of these are adjusted manually -- typically four times per year, which is a high operational cost and a logistically challenging. The only other remote pressure management technology dates from the 1980s, is expensive, time- consuming to install and requires continuous manual intervention.

Utonomy's innovative, patented solution adjusts pressures in the network so that they are always as low as possible, while maintaining security of supply.

Utonomy has been running field trials with SGN on their live network since January 2019. These trials have successfully proven the core technology.

The next regulatory period RIIO-2 (April 21 to March 26) contains targets set by OFGEM for leakage and average network pressures. Deployment of the Utonomy solution will help the UK GDNs (gas distribution networks) to meet these targets.

Although the technology has been proven in field trials, there is still further development work required before it can be rolled out across a whole gas network as "business as usual". This project will complete this work and will be the final step prior to commercialization. The R&D programme includes adapting to the many different governor types that are present in the GB network, finding a solution to underground installations with challenging environments such as flooding, and continuing to make further improvements in cyber security. The project will also enable the technology to be trialed in markets outside the UK.