National Grid is carrying out work in Ware, Hertfordshire, as part of an initiative which will reduce CO2 emissions equal to taking 38,000 cars off the road.
A total of £23 million is to be spent in installing new equipment at 2,000 gas governor sites across the North West, the Midlands and East Anglia to give greater control over the pressure of gas being fed through the network pipes which supply homes and businesses. The work has been approved by industry regulator, OFGEM.
Each of the sites identified will be connected to a central computer system via a data transfer link which will allow local demand for gas to be constantly monitored and pressures modified accordingly.
At present, the majority of governors which regulate the gas pressure in the supply pipes have their pressure set manually and usually operate at one pressure during peak hours of demand and then at a different pressure during the hours of low demand.
The installation of the new equipment will allow pressures to change, day and night, to mirror demand. This will save on the throughput of gas and will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions – accounting for the CO2 saving equivalent to the output of 38,000 cars.
Mark Williams is leading the Emissions Reduction Programme. He said: “The installation of this technology allows us to optimise the operation of the local distribution network.
“We will be able to automatically alter the pressure of the governor to meet changes in demand. At present, the system does not have this flexibility and we are feeding gas into the pipeline system at pressures which are potentially higher than is required. In most cases, the only way we have of altering pressures now is to dispatch an engineer to do this manually.”
National Grid is working in partnership with Multi-Tech Contracts Ltd to install the equipment in substations across the North West, East and West Midlands and East Anglia. The majority of substations in London already have this equipment.
Multi-Tech engineers are installing data transfer links and new pressure control equipment at each of the governor kiosks identified as part of the scheme. The new equipment is solar powered – adding to the already green credentials of the scheme.
Mark added: “Many of the governor stations we are visiting are remote – it would have been extremely costly to lay conventional landlines and electricity cables to these sites and so we decided to use GSM and solar power technology across the board.”
In addition, Multi-tech are also upgrading other equipment to meet the latest specifications at all the governor kiosks they visit.
Mark said: “We have been working to a very green agenda with this project. The overall aim is to reduce our carbon footprint and we have looked carefully at every aspect of the delivery on the ground to make sure it is a green initiative through and through.”
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For further media information, contact Jeanette Unsworth, National Grid Communications on 01926 655372.