Load Management in the GIS
Brett R. Beaver
Advantica Stoner
P.O. Box 86
1170 Harrisburg Pike
Carlisle PA 17013-0086
Abstract
Load management is gaining new attention due to changes in the natural gas industry. Mergers, acquisitions, and deregulation of the retail market have increased the utility’s focus on customer service. This paper addresses the industry’s current load approval processes, changes in the industry that will affect these processes, and how spatial data can help facilitate the needs of the utility in the changing market.
Background
The natural gas industry uses spatial technology in a variety of ways to manage their networks. Utilities track responses to service requests and leaks, plan and track maintenance activities, perform cathodic protection, and perform emergency response operations, just to name a few. One key area where the gas industry is focusing tremendous attention is load management. This is due to the deregulation of the retail marketplace and the growing consolidation of the utility industry.
What is Load Management
Load management involves two main goals: (1) managing the customers currently on the system, and (2) extending service to new customers. An alternative way to define load management is to refer to it as “pipeline capacity” management. For example, new customers can be targeted in areas that contain unused capacity. Likewise, customer service and safety could be jeopardized in areas that are over-allocated or that have very little capacity. Trying to maximize a pipeline’s capacity by adding new customers versus alleviating areas of over-commitment or low pipeline capacity is a struggle that the industry faces everyday.
One common example of this struggle is highlighted when utilities need to determine the size of a main to install in the ground. For example, a utility may install an 8-inch pipe to service new customers, hoping that they will utilize that pipe to its full capacity. A year or two later, the planning engineer does not want to look back on that construction job and realize that a 6-inch pipe would have worked better. Rather, the engineer would like to see the pipeline used to its fullest capacity. The key is to maximize the capacity of the pipe at the lowest possible size with out jeopardizing system reliability.
Once a pipe has reached capacity, no additional customers can be maintained at the current level of reliability. But what if the utility’s marketer, unaware that the pipeline is at capacity, signs up a few more customers? The new customers could come on and probably be served temporarily, but any slight change in the way a customer uses the gas (such as a gas dryer turning on, or a small change in outside temperature) could cause the pipeline pressure to plummet. If that happens, the utility is forced to deal with customer complaints and send crews to relight pilot lights. In addition, the failure to provide gas to all the customers may be reported in the local newspaper. Added operational expense combined with bad publicity is never a good thing.
An example like the one above demonstrates how important it is to effectively manage the load on your system. The utility that can judiciously balance customer service and safety with maximizing pipeline capacity will be taking a giant step towards successful load management.
