With the world becoming more concerned about climate change, carbon dioxide emissions, and air quality, the focus on natural gas for electricity generation has increased as natural gas emits the least carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced.
Natural gas also finds uses across residential, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors, in varying amounts.
The success in large-scale adoption of natural gas as an environment friendly energy source largely depends on efficient transportation of natural gas from its processing centers to its end consumers.
The Project: Dabhol-Bangalore Gas Pipeline
The Dabhol-Bangalore Gas Pipeline, being constructed by the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) is a 1,400-km pipeline project for supplying natural gas to the Indian state of Karnataka from Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd in the Indian state of Maharashtra.
In the part A of the first phase 402 km of pipeline will be laid from Dabhol to Gokak and was scheduled to be completed by 2011-12. In part B of the phase 1,570-km pipeline will be laid from Gokak to Bangalore and was scheduled to be completed by 2012-13.
In the second phase, 417 km of feeder lines will be laid to Ratnagiri, Kolhapur, Sangli in Maharashtra and Bijapur, Dharwad, Davangere, Harihar and Tumkur; and would be completed by 2013-14.
The pipeline would have an installed capacity to supply about 30 million metric standard cubic metre of gas daily. On completion, this pipeline would be India’s longest cross-country natural gas transportation and distribution system.
The Challenge
In order to manage the natural gas that enters the pipeline, and to ensure that all customers receive timely delivery of their portion of this gas, sophisticated control systems are required to monitor the gas as it travels through all sections of the pipeline network. To accomplish this task of monitoring and controlling the natural gas that is traveling through the pipeline, centralized gas control stations collect, assimilate, and manage data received from monitoring and compressor stations all along the pipe.
Most of the data that is received by a control station is provided by Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. These systems are essentially sophisticated communications systems that take measurements and collect data along the pipeline (usually in a metering or compressor stations and valves) and transmit it to the centralized control station. Flow rate through the pipeline, operational status, pressure, and temperature readings may all be used to assess the status of the pipeline at any one time. These systems also work in real time, meaning that there is little lag time between the measurements taken along the pipeline and their transmission to the control station.
The Requirement
The key requirement for such sophisticated communication systems is that the data needs to be relayed to a centralized control station, allowing pipeline engineers to know exactly what is happening along the pipeline at all times.
Fiber optic cables form the backbone for the SCADA systems and enables quick reactions to equipment malfunctions, leaks, or any other unusual activity along the pipeline.
Sterlite’s Solution: Double Sheath Armored Fiber Optic Cable
Features:
● Rodent protected cable,
● High tensile strength, crush and impact resistance,
● Longitudinal water penetration resistance,
● UV protected outer most jacket,
● Ripcord for easy removal of sheath,
● Multi-tube design for ease of mid-spanning,
● Reverse oscillation lay for strain relieved fiber.
Conclusion
Once completed, the pipeline would supply gas to fertilizer and power plants that are planned for construction in the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa.
The Dabhol-Bangalore Gas Pipeline would also form the main backbone for gas distribution systems, for supply of compressed natural gas (CNG) to automobiles and piped gas to households.