Utonomy & Gasnatet Stockholm expand partnership to add more pressure control sites

Utonomy and Gasnatet Stockholm are delighted to announce the expansion of their partnership in an important contract covering pressure management for another five regulator stations on the Stockholm distribution network.

Following a recent successful trial, the contract will see the unique UtonomyOne pressure control and management systems installed on gas distribution company Gasnatet Stockholm’s low-pressure network in the centre of the city. This technology will reduce the average operating pressure, and thus leakage and methane emissions, in Stockholm’s gas network.

Historically, the network has operated at a fixed pressure set point but with the addition of Utonomy’s retrofittable Ucontrol solution, this has allowed the pressure to be automatically reduced overnight and increased again in time for each morning’s demand increase. Following the Ucontrol field trial, Gasnatet Stockholm has now decided to extend the Ucontrol operation to a further five sites and enhance the operability by adding Uconnect IoT, Ucloud and Uscope. Uconnect enables operators to remotely monitor and control the pressure of regulators feeding the networks, ensuring that they are always running at the optimum pressure while maintaining security of supply.

Uconnect IoT, Ucloud and Uscope

Uconnect IoT provides remote data-logging and secure communications between Ucontrol equipment and the centralised Ucloud data management platform. It facilitates standalone set-point scheduling, remote status monitoring, and remote pressure control via wireless cellular IoT connectivity using LTE-M1 and NB-IoT technologies for secure and resilient communications. Ucloud and Uscope are respectively the central platform for managing the remote hardware equipment, storing and processing data, and hosting a range of software applications and services, including Uscope, the application for remote monitoring and control.

Reducing methane emissions

On the trial network project, Gasnatet Stockholm achieved overnight average system pressure reductions from 15mbar to 12mbar, which equates to a 20% reduction in overall leakage. The new installations build on this successful collaboration to extend methane emissions reduction across the network.

Steve Dawson, CEO of Utonomy, commented:

“Our technology helps to prepare gas networks for the low-carbon transition, by providing operators with the intelligent tools to control network pressures, as well as the means of prioritising green gas injection.

“We are delighted to have been awarded this contract to add more intelligent control systems onto the Stockholm network, and to further assist Gasnatet Stockholm in achieving their methane reduction targets.”

Johan Skansing, Director of Operations at Gasnatet Stockholm, commented:

“We are delighted to have had such great results from the trial, and looking forward to working with Utonomy again to connect up Ucloud and Uscope in the next phase of the project covering further strategic sites on our network.”

For more information, visit utonomy.co.uk