Gas Distribution Outage Management System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Managing the fluctuating demand and ensuring safe and reliable distribution of natural gas, particularly during winter months and in colder climates, poses significant challenges due to the complexity of gas distribution networks and the need for effective shutoff and outage management.
Innovation Solution
A gas distribution and outage management system that integrates a supervisory control and data acquisition module with a geographic information system module to create a data management and outage model, providing near real-time user interfaces for operators to manage infrastructure, track outages, and optimize gas distribution, including the use of smart meters and APIs for real-time data ingestion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional gas distribution management system is used, then the system structure is simple, but the ability to manage fluctuating demand and respond to outages is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines SCADA system data (for real-time operational control) with GIS system data (for spatial and geographic context) into an integrated distribution management system. This merging allows the system to simultaneously monitor operational status and visualize geographic locations of outages and infrastructure, thereby improving outage management capability while managing system complexity through integrated architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The integrated distribution management system performs multiple functions: it monitors gas flow and pressure through SCADA, visualizes infrastructure locations through GIS, tracks outage events, manages customer information, and provides decision support for restoration activities. This multi-functionality improves reliability by handling diverse management tasks within a single unified platform.
2Loss of time
If real-time data integration from multiple sources is implemented, then outage response speed is improved, but data management complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary integration layer that connects SCADA, GIS, and other data sources to the distribution management system. This intermediary layer standardizes data interfaces, handles data transformation and synchronization, and manages the complexity of real-time data integration from multiple sources, thereby enabling fast outage response without overwhelming system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system segments data management into distinct modules: SCADA module for operational data, GIS module for spatial data, outage management module for event tracking, and customer information module for account data. Each module handles specific data types independently, reducing overall data management complexity while enabling comprehensive real-time monitoring and rapid outage response through coordinated module interactions.
Data Source
AI summary
An example distribution and outage management system can include: a processor; and memory encoding instructions which, when executed by the processor, causes the system to: provide a supervisory control and data acquisition module programmed to manage infrastructure elements of a distribution network; provide a geographic information system module programmed to manage spatial aspects of the distribution network; provide a distribution and outage module programmed to incorporate data from the supervisory control and data acquisition module and data from the geographic information system module to create a data management and outage model; and render an interface depicting the data management and outage model.