The technical global management of the national natural gas transmission system involves the coordination of the different infrastructures in the system to ensure open and non-discriminatory access to the infrastructure, as well as monitoring, capacity, planning and the management of the national natural gas transmission system in a way to permit every user to access it safely.
As technical manager of the system, REN Gasodutos is responsible for the access of gas to the infrastructure in its different cycles, including the nominating process and gas accounting for each user, in order to promote an efficient and cost-effective use of the network.
From a technical perspective, REN Gasodutos must ensure that the pipelines have sufficient capacity to process the requests of users, managing the varying pressures and flows in order to maintain the responsiveness and availability of the network. In addition, we are also responsible for monitoring compliance by other participants operating in the national natural gas system with legal and operational obligations in relation to the security of supply.
Control Systems
Our natural gas infrastructure was recently constructed using the latest technology. It is monitored by state-of-the-art systems employing fibre-optic based telecommunications technology connecting the remote stations in the pipeline to the main components of the infrastructure, such as the LNG terminal in Sines and the underground storage facilities in Carriço. These telecommunications systems communicate information from the metering systems.
REN Gasodutos relies on the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition ("SCADA") system and skilled onsite maintenance teams to keep the pipelines and the remote stations secure. The SCADA system, which employs built-in redundancy, allows for early problem diagnosis and quick response to any malfunctions. The onsite maintenance teams regularly inspect the right-of-way to ensure that parties using the infrastructure are complying with safety requirements and minimizing the risk of interference with, or damage to, the infrastructure. Data is electronically collected, reducing the margin for human error, and recorded both onsite and centrally, allowing analyses to be conducted at a later stage on equipment performance in order to detect malfunction trends and to anticipate problems.
REN Atlântico and REN Armazenagem both have developed automated monitoring and control systems. For example, the truck loading bay at the LNG terminal of REN Atlântico is fully automated. The level of automation allows us to employ a reduced team to manage the facilities and to ensure that the infrastructure is operating at due capacity, and allows quick access to data on the state of the infrastructure.