ISLAMABAD: IGNITE – National Technology Fund under Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication aims to reduce unaccounted-for-gas (UFG) to 10% that equals 25 billion per year.
The IT Ministry would gain this profit through the project ‘Energy Watch; Preventing Pilferage, Saving Cost of Inclining Resource of Gas’ to benefit domestic users.
Talking to APP, Project Manager Dr Gul Muhammad said, main hurdle in that project was the installation of sensors for underground networking of pipelines and provision of energy to those sensors, which now had been resolved. He added that through this step the cost of the project would be reduced.
Dr Gul said according to the estimate Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) would recover its implementation cost for these installations in around three years. “It will be profitable for SNGPL in next five to ten years’, he explained.
“Through this project, we are targeting to address each one of these irregularity, with an aim to reduce UFG down”, he added.
They had developed a sensor based network for real time monitoring and data acquisition of Gas Distribution Network, for possible malicious activities and theft detection, he added.
He said, sensors were initially tested and ready to be installed in the field and experiments were underway for underground networking of pipelines to detect the leakage and save the resource.
Through this 15.4 million project we are aiming to use gas pipeline for high speed communication as well, he added. He said, According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Unaccounted-for-Gas (UFG) averages at 1-2% globally. However, in Pakistan UFG is at an alarming 13% for both SNGPL and SSGC.
Every percent of gas loss amounts to a loss of $28 million (Rs. 2.5 billion) accumulating to an annual loss of over $334 million to the national exchequer (Rs. 3 billion).
Major contributing anomalies towards UFG are Leakage, Theft, Meter tampering, false billing and Illegal connections. In theft, major industries are involved specially CNG stations.
Usually main gas pipeline are underground so their detection process is really tough so through this project it could help in saving this resource.
The main reason for gas shortage in winter season is the dependency on thermal generation and lack of hydro generation.
Usually in under construction areas pipelines get damaged and instead of repairing, the workers put mud on it which causes loss of the natural resource.
