Assam’s tea gardens and industrial customers have upgraded to ABB's digital gas control systems for Assam Gas Company. 

 

ABB’s SCADA-based solution monitors and controls gas flow across tea estates and select industrial customers, across six districts of upper Assam. The project was awarded by Assam Gas Company Limited (AGCL) and will be undertaken in two phases to cover 399 tea estates and six large industrial customers. As the state utility works towards building a sustainable gas distribution system, one of the major issues AGCL faced was the optimization of gas flow along its extensive pipeline network ensuring gas availability per pre-defined limit even to the last-mile consumer.

 

“ABB is proud to be associated with Assam Gas Company, in digitizing their gas distribution network. ABB India has developed an in-house competency to design, engineer and develop a completely engineered solution to meet the entire spectrum of metering requirements for gas companies. This solution is designed to eliminate the challenges of complex pipeline networks and provide greater visi- bility of consumption for better demand and supply forecasting,” said Balaji G, Head - Industrial Automation, Energy business, ABB India.

 

ABB engineers collaborated with a telecom service provider to develop a novel APN-based (access point name) GPRS solution, to improve the network connection at scattered locations, which enabled the tea estates to transfer data over the wireless network. The team was able to set up the wireless communication network for AGCL on schedule, to allow secure, real-time data acquisition through SMS, email, mobility and data access.

 

ABB was able to customize and deliver a state-of-the-art SCADA and telecom solution for AGCL covering 74 tea estates and six big industrial consumers in the first phase of the project. This solution comprises three pressure regulating stations, one bi-directional metering station along AGCL’s pipeline. 

 

ABB’s control system helps AGCL to regulate the gas flow according to the requirements of each tea estate. ABB’s pressure regulation (metering, filtration and pressure-let-down) skids, ultrasonic-based metering module solution and the advanced control system, ensure gas distribution to the last mile connection while maintaining the optimum pressure along the length of the pipeline.

 

On the completion of Phase I, ABB has been awarded with additional contract for 325 locations by Assam Gas Company in a competitive bidding process, to be carried out over the next four years as part of Phase II. An ERP solution integrated with SCADA shall also ensure accurate billing for AGCL without need for physical data collections over vast remotely located areas.