Gas Service Sizing via Flow Disaggregation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current utility delivery systems lack sufficient information to accurately diagnose and address issues such as inefficient gas appliances, under-sized service capacity, and low gas pressure conditions, leading to inefficiencies and potential customer dissatisfaction.
Innovation Solution
Implementing smart metering technologies that measure and process gas flowrates to identify appliance efficiency, detect under-sized services, and detect low gas pressure without additional sensors, using techniques like disaggregation of gas flow data and historical comparisons to normalize usage and detect anomalies.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional utility delivery systems are used, then system simplicity is maintained, but information completeness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the aggregate gas consumption data into individual appliance-level data through disaggregation algorithms. This allows the system to provide detailed information about each appliance's consumption patterns without requiring physical segmentation or additional sensors at each appliance, thus improving information completeness while avoiding proportional increases in system complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary data processing layer that sits between the existing gas meter and the utility system. This intermediary layer performs disaggregation and analysis of consumption data, enabling detailed monitoring and diagnosis without modifying the physical gas delivery infrastructure or requiring additional sensors in the gas flow path
2Measurement precision
If additional sensors are installed to improve measurement, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enables the existing gas meter and delivery system to self-diagnose pressure and flow issues by analyzing consumption pattern anomalies. The system uses disaggregated data to infer pressure conditions and appliance efficiency without requiring external pressure sensors or additional measurement devices, thus achieving improved detection capability without increasing device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces physical pressure sensors with a virtual sensing approach that uses consumption data analysis to infer pressure conditions. By substituting mechanical measurement devices with data-driven inference algorithms, the system achieves comparable or superior measurement precision while reducing hardware complexity
3Productivity
If real-time monitoring is implemented, then productivity is improved, but loss of time for data processing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary disaggregation and pattern recognition on consumption data as it is collected, preparing the data for rapid analysis. By pre-processing and organizing consumption data into appliance-level segments in real-time, the system enables immediate diagnosis of efficiency issues and pressure problems without requiring time-consuming batch processing later
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques determine if a gas service (e.g., piping and/or meter) is under-sized for the customer's needs. In one example, flowrate information corresponding to gas usage at a service site over a first period of time is obtained. The flowrate information is disaggregated to determine an expected flowrate associated with each of two or more appliances having generally fixed-rates of gas consumption. Flowrate information is again obtained, corresponding to a second period of time. The second flowrate information is compared to one or more combinations (i.e., summations) of the expected flowrates associated with each of the two or more appliances. Based on the comparison, it may be determined that the service site is not appropriately sized. In an example, failure to detect two fixed-rate of gas-consumption appliances operating at their respective fixed-rates at the same time may indicate that the service cannot provide gas at a sufficient flowrate.