Synergi Gas Software Applications

Emergency Planning for Gas Networks

Planning for the unplanned: Comprehensive Emergency Preparedness with Synergi Gas

For gas utilities and network operators, the ability to respond quickly and effectively to emergencies is paramount. Whether it's a severe weather event, equipment failure, or other unforeseen circumstances, having a comprehensive Emergency Operating Plan is not just a regulatory requirement but essential for maintaining public safety and minimizing service interruptions.

Synergi Gas provides the critical tools needed to proactively plan for and respond to emergencies. By modeling isolation scenarios, managing customer data, and analyzing outage impacts, gas providers can enhance their emergency preparedness and ensure the reliable, safe delivery of gas to their communities - even in the face of the unexpected.

Without these capabilities, gas providers can struggle to make informed decisions, allocate resources appropriately, and communicate with affected customers during a crisis.

Modelling the impact of shutting off gas to certain regions

The Area Isolation module in Synergi Gas is a powerful tool that enables engineers to simulate the isolation of specific areas within the gas system. This functionality is crucial for emergency planning, as it allows users to visualize the isolated zones, identify available valves, and determine the downstream effects of shutting off the gas supply.

By modeling these isolation scenarios, engineers can answer essential questions, such as:

Which critical valves need to be shut to isolate the system?
Does the isolation hydraulically impact the rest of the system?
Can impacted systems be backfed, customers shed, or have operating pressures increased?
Which customers are impacted? How many? How much demand does that represent?
Can the impact be mitigated by inserting other isolation valves?

In the example alongside, the area to be analyzed is selected with a polygon and the affected valves are clearly displayed by the triangles.

This visual understanding of the system's behavior during an emergency helps optimize preparedness strategies and ensure an efficient emergency response.

Maintaining a comprehensive view of affected customers

The Customer Management module in Synergi Gas provides a vital link between the software and your customer information system (CIS). By establishing a relationship between weather, individual customer load, and customer location, this module empowers you to visualize the isolated zones and graphically identify the customers impacted by a service interruption.

The reporting capabilities of the Customer Management module allow you to quickly inform your field staff and customer service departments, ensuring a coordinated and effective response to emergencies. With this comprehensive understanding of your customer base, you can make informed decisions, allocate resources more efficiently, and communicate proactively with affected customers, as shown in the sample report.

Prioritizing maintenance and minimizing downstream impacts

Synergi Gas Outage Analysis takes the emergency planning capabilities a step further by evaluating all regulator stations in your existing hydraulic model. The DNV Consulting team uses Outage Analysis to calculate and report the downstream impacts of a 'fail shut' scenario or planned regulator closings at each station, providing the critical information needed to inform your maintenance priorities, perform capacity analysis, and quickly assess the consequences of a loss of supply. The report sample lists the expected downstream impact for each regulator station in the system, including how many customers would be lost.

By utilizing the accurate pressure results generated by Synergi Gas models, you can make data-driven decisions to prioritize regulator station maintenance, ensuring the system's resilience and mitigating the potential for widespread service interruptions during an emergency.

Critical Pipe Analysis service analyses each individual pipe within the system and the impact to customers and system flow if that pipe is lost. Combined with the Customer Management Module database, individual customers can be identified, and the total lost load can be calculated for each out-of-service pipe.