SynerGEE Gas

Prepare for an Emergency

Area Isolation Module (AIM) provides you with the tools you need to simulate the isolation of user-selected areas of a gas network for emergency planning, maintenance or other operational needs. AIM also enables you to analyse and generate detailed reports on the effect of area isolation on remaining network pressure and flow.

Accurate Isolation Analysis

Combined with SynerGEE's traditional steady-state functionality, AIM is useful in planning future system outages or determining what happens when an emergency valve is closed. You can also perform a complete analysis that isolates the system, then hydraulically balances the modified model, to identify which customers are affected by an outage. AIM works within SynerGEE's user-friendly interface so you can use your model with customer information system (CIS) data.

Enhanced Features

AIM delivers value-added features, including:

• Quick identification of valves that isolate areas in your network
• Integrated isolation data in the model database
• Extensive graphical and tabular reporting options
• Enhanced load handling for modified load removal based on closed-valve locations
• Isolation polygons to select isolation areas over areas defined by regulating valves and facilities
• Better design to meet DOT and/or state utility commission requirements

Connect to Your CIS

AIM and the Customer Management Module (CMM) can work together to generate an easy link between isolated zones in your hydraulic model and your existing CIS data. The link allows you to quickly and graphically identify customers affected by an isolated region. The reporting capability allows you to quickly report to your field staff and customer service department.

Network Efficiency

Automated Design Module (ADM) enables you to assess pipe size options for your model with specified loading conditions, material cost, installation cost and location. ADM is designed to calculate and report the lowest possible pipe diameter capable of transporting sufficient quantities of gas to required delivery points safely and reliably. The module is particularly helpful when designing new systems or expanding and reconstructing existing networks.

Piping Solutions

ADM operates in single-pressure level networks on data and criteria you provide. Requirements include:

• Current and possible piping configurations
• Load distribution including the design criteria of maximum and minimum allowable velocity for the decision pipes
• Pipe installation parameters including internal diameter, material type and installation cost per unit length

ADM Reporting

As you prepare for an ADM automated design run, you can select the level of detail in the results report produced at the conclusion of the run. You can specify one of the following:

• Full trail detail report displays a complete record of the design session recording each ADM procedure and displays it in chronological order as it occurs. A subreport of the full trail report is the pipe change report, which displays all of the pipes whose diameters changed during the design session.
• Velocity trail detail displays the best design solution for each maximum velocity ADM used, summarizing the best design scenarios.
• No report only displays the final design solution.

Benefits

ADM can provide many benefits to your organization, such as:

• Determining a low cost design for new service areas or major mains replacement efforts
• Quickly analyzing system design and avoiding over-design of your system
• Clearly identifying the incremental cost by designing to a higher minimum pressure

Calculate Cost of Service Data

Cost of Service Module (COSM) extends the reporting functionality of the SynerGEE Gas steady state application. COSM is used with SynerGEE to report the cost of service for gas in a distribution system. Based on the pipe cost, the pipe capacity and customer demand on peak day, COSM calculates cost of service data.

Assess Financial Gain

The COSM reports associated costs by tracing the model from node to facility to node. These costs provide insight to the financial assessment of your pipeline system. Whether you are determining the supply cost from node-to-node or the cost of having stub nodes, COSM can help to eliminate or effectively determine the most financially sound method to add new facilities to your system.

Reporting Features

COSM's primary function is to report the costs associated with the nodes and facilities in your model. COSM take associated information from the CAP file and relates it to the nodes and facilities. Using the flow and concentration, it provides investment reports, including:

• Node cost trace report
• Facility cost trace report
• Node supply trace report
• Node stub report

Using a balanced model and a CAP file, COSM reports the cost of service data on nodes and elements.

The CAP file in an ASCII-format data file that lists each facility identifier (FID) in the model and an associated cost value usually, the cost of pipe installation with depreciation. The associated cost value can be book value or replacement value.

In the cost of service calculation, COSM takes flow, load and concentration, combines them with a rate set in the SynerGEE CAP file and provides cost values associated with your facilities and node.

Link to Your Customer Information

Customer Management Module (CMM) provides a link between SynerGEE and your customer information system (CIS). Using information from your CIS database, CMM establishes a relationship among weather, individual customer load and customer location.

Assign Customer Location

CMM assigns customer location using customer X Y coordinates, service address, manual assignment or other sources such as a geospatial information system (GIS), where available. If the information is available from the CIS, CMM considers pressure codes, diameter or pipe material during the customer assignment process. CMM can use this data to identify the proper main when multiple mains are in close proximity to a customer coordinate.

The assignment process also uses logic so that customers are not assigned to regulators or other equipment. During customer assignment, you can use CMM's scheduling function to define multiple assignment passes. This enables you to quickly review a list of customers that were assigned during each pass.

Create Loads

CMM uses historic billing information from your CIS and weather data to calculate weather-dependent loading for each customer. Using proven regression techniques, CMM analyzes historical gas usage patterns for each customer to determine respective base and heating and cooling factors.

Display Customer Information

By accessing CMM's database in the SynerGEE environment, you can quickly obtain a list of customers assigned to pipes and nodes. When you have selected either individual or groups of pipes (or nodes), CMM will display a list of the assigned customers and customer information, including account number address, load factors and a rate code.

The ability to display customer data allows you to identify major loads in a selected area and identify customers affected by service interruptions or system changes.

An independently licensed module of SynerGEE Gas, CMM uses an Oracle® data repository that allows you to store significantly more customer data.

Other CMM benefits include:

• Proven Forecasting Engine. CMM's load factor engine is built on 20 years of experience in forecasting customer demand. CMM's load factors results are constantly benchmarked against recorded flow data.
• Automated Customer Assignment. CMM's customer assignment functions significantly reduce the effort required to link customers to model facilities.
• Data Mining Tools. CMM provides tools to query customer data and chart/report on customer data. You can investigate customer demand data load analysis results that let you accurately model your distribution system.
• Custom SynerGEE Reporting. By linking customer data with your SynerGEE model, you can create customer lists for outages, adjust model loading by temperature, reassign customers using drag and drop functionality and create custom reports for system planning designs.

Network Efficiency

Estate Design Module (EDM) enables you to assess pipe size options for your model with specified loading conditions, material cost, installation cost and location. EDM is designed to calculate and report the lowest possible pipe diameter capable of transporting sufficient quantities of gas to required delivery points safely and reliably. The module is particularly helpful when designing new systems with demand diversity.

Demand Modelling

EDM embodies the IGEM recommended formulae for the estimation of 1 in 20 peak 6 minute flows (IGE/GL/1). Diversity modelling is available. In this mode, demands can be specified in terms of numbers of customers, customer type and estimated annual consumption. When analysing or designing a network, diversity formulae and a mixing formula are used. Diversity modelling is available for tree networks only (loops are not permitted).

Analysis and Design

EDM calculates steady state pressures and flow throughout the network, correcting if required for altitude effects. In design mode the program will automatically size pipes to give a near minimum cost while ensuring that all pressures are above a minimum design pressure.

Piping Solutions

• Current and possible piping configurations.
• Load distribution including the design criteria of maximum and minimum allowable velocity for the decision pipes.
• Pipe installation parameters including internal diameter, material type and installation cost per unit length. Using this data and criteria, EDM determines which set of pipes satisfy your specified pressure constraints.

Data Requirements

Demand Data
For point demands, node, demand flow and demand tag are required. For diversified demands, node, number of customers, demand tag, customer type and annual consumption are required.

Factor Data
Factor data consists of: nominal diameter, material tag, efficiency factor, internal diameter and pipe cost per unit length.

Benefits

EDM can provide many benefits to your organisation, such as

• Determining a low cost design for new estate areas.
• Quickly analysing system design and avoiding over-design of your system.
• Network demand diversity.
• GIS Interaction.Ability to use scanned builders plans, CAD drawings as geo background for SynerGEE model build and design.

Graphically Compare Models

Facilities Management Module (FMM) allows you to synchronize your gas distribution network models with GIS updates without rebuilding your model and losing valuable hydraulic data. You can review changes spatially and selectively accept or reject individual or groups of changes to merge into the model. While using FMM, you can perform routine SynerGEE functions such as adding, deleting and modifying nodes and facilities and running hydraulic analyses.

FMM offers you flexibility when comparing models. You can specify that FMM compare only pipes and regulators or only certain attributes of those pipes and regulators. You can also control the tolerances used for comparisons so differences that you consider insignificant are not flagged.

Synchronize Updates into a Model

When synchronizing changes into a model, you can graphically view each feature flagged and choose to accept or reject each change. Each change is classified as an add to, modification of ,or deletion from the base model.

Streamline Maintenance Tasks

FMM allows you to quickly and easily:

• Determine the differences between two models or between a GIS data set and a model
• View a list of proposed changes
• Selectively apply proposed changes you want to a base model
• Evaluate the impact of recent GIS updates to your SynerGEE model

New spatial detection functionality in FMM groups adjacent changes together. Deleted changes can then be viewed side-by-side with the existing model both graphically in the map and as a list of attributes. Easy-to-use tools enable you to accept or reject an entire group (e.g. subdivision or new development) or the individual changes in that group.

Minimize Network Leakage

The Gas Leakage Management Module (LMM) allows you to minimize leakage in your gas distribution network while remaining within your model constraints.

SynerGEE Gas LMM enables the user to enter leakage factors, or coefficients, against the pipes within a model. This figure gives the expected rate of leakage from the pipes and is determined by the user. The module will then allow you to perform an analysis, for a single lower pressure tier, that will reduce the set pressures at supplies so that the pressure in the pipes with the highest leakage is preferentially reduced.

Minimum and maximum flow constraints can be applied at supplies, as well as the minimum and maximum pressure constraints varied throughout the single pressure tier model. Individual supplies may be included or excluded from the analysis as required.

• Determine the set pressures required at supplies that maintain the model within the flow and pressure constraints specified and set a single or default global value for minimum or maximum pressures throughout the network model.
• Assess the resulting average pressure within the individual pipes and the system as a whole for the condition analyzed. Pressure can be minimized by not taking the leakage coefficient into account.
• Assess the level of leakage from the individual pipes and the system as a whole for the conditions analyzed. Leakage can be minimized by taking the leakage coefficient into account.

Leakage Minimization Methodology

• Assumes the only known pressures in the model are at supplies.
• Does not optimize the settings of regulators and valves.
• Begins the process with the current network settings and then adjusts supply pressures to minimize leakage (or pressure if required).
• Supplies may be included or excluded from the minimization analysis.
• The maximum and minimum flow level from the supply may be set for inclusion in the analysis.

Integrate External Data

Model Builder provides a seamless integration between SynerGEE Gas and your geospatial information system (GIS) data.

Model Builder's robust and flexible data management capability allows you to import data into SynerGEE from a variety of external sources including shape files, CAD files and ArcInfo™ coverages, as well as personal and enterprise ArcGIS® geodatabases.

Model Builder converts GIS point data, such as valves and regulators, into linear, non-pipe facilities. Model Builder's GIS integration capability provides you with an automated process for efficient model maintenance and revision.

Control Your Model

Model Builder lets you filter and query data from external sources so that you can build your model using only the data you need from each source. You can import multiple pipe and facility source model layers at once, rather than importing each layer individually.

You can also map source file attributes to SynerGEE facility data and supplement any missing or incomplete GIS attributes with your model data. This includes regulator station details, internal pipe diameters, pipe roughness values, source node properties, customer demands and specific node names. Save your imported model attributes and confi gurations to rebuild your model whenever you choose, including weekly and monthly.

Validate and Enhance Data

Model Builder validates imported facility and node data and lets you make necessary corrections to ensure proper functionality. Its spatial and attribute tools can be used to clean topology, identify bottlenecks and report missing attribute data. Reported errors are saved to a browser file and can be viewed and corrected in GIS.

Model Builder also drastically streamlines the time required to build your SynerGEE models. After converting your initial GIS data, SynerGEE Model Builder stores your settings so that you can re-build your models with the simple click of a mouse.

Optimize Asset Potential

Optimization Module (Optimizer) provides the analytical capability to help understand and plan for the complex dynamics between pipeline operation and pipeline economics. Optimizer provides fuel and cost of fuel optimization capabilities that allow you to minimize system-wide volumetric fuel consumption or system-wide fuel cost.

Optimizer can calculate maximum throughput in various sections of your pipeline network and can select the most cost-effective mix of contracts when given access to contracts and transportation agreements. Optimizer incorporates a state-of-the-art optimization engine that has been developed and enhanced over 20 years.

The optimization engine uses a suite of linear and non-linear techniques to find the optimum operating mode based on your objective, whether fuel, fuel cost or throughput. The mathematical engine not only performs the optimization, but also completes it within the constraints of pipeline hydraulics to ensure the operational integrity of the network.

The optimization engine considers the details of your system, including:

• Compressor operating envelopes
• Compressor discharge temperatures
• Minimum and maximum delivery pressures
• Maximum allowable operating pressure
• Regulator set points
• Receipt and delivery volumes

Optimizer determines the optimal combination of receipts and deliveries that maximizes capacity consistent with contractual and deliverability constraints. The economic and contractual components of system capacity are evaluated by reviewing revenues and costs associated with individual system sales, supply and transportation transactions on a bulk or individual contract basis.

Optimizer applications include throughput analysis and maximizations, transport feasibility and system bottleneck analysis. Optimizer is also used by pipeline facility groups to improve pipeline designs, expedite the design process and refine operational procedures.

Simulate Change Over Time

Time-Varying Module (TVM) allows you to perform a series of consecutive steady-state analyses to simulate the changes in your network over time. Model your system over days, weeks, months or years to determine:

• System adequacy to meet anticipated requirements.
• Compressor fuel requirements over an extended period of time.
• Storage well or field injection and withdrawal requirements and schedules.
• System behaviour based on starting conditions.

Each of these scenarios shares long-term time-varying effects. Linking individual steady-state simulations through time provides the time-varying continuity needed for tasks such as inventory tracking and compressor maintenance scheduling.

Leverage Unsteady-State Knowledge

TVM offers a broad selection of features essential to successfully handling the large volume of information a time-varying model can create, including:

• Comprehensive array of data that can be controlled via dimensioned or dimensionless profiles
• Numerous program-supplied and unlimited user-defined variables providing detailed information
• Extensive graphical and tabular reporting options

Extra Features

TVM is based on the same field-proven calculations used by SynerGEE to perform steady-state analyses and provides the upplemental controls and features you need to perform extended period simulation:

• Logical Operating Scripts expand TVM's functionality and control for automating model events. The scripts capability exposes virtually all modeling features, variables and attributes for greater modeling flexibility.
• A fully editable Results Plan allows you to interactively define charting variables before and during time-varying analyses. The plan is pre-populated with standard modeling attributes and enables you to add attributes including facilities, nodes, system variables, user-defined variables and profile information.
• TVM's Charting flexibility allows you greater control over model curve line colors, width and types and expands the number of plottable variables per axis.

TVM offers a more recognizable, customizable graphical environment focused on productivity and powered by a best-in-class steady-state engine. SynerGEE's map display and model explorer provide convenient access to model data including facilities, properties and an equipment warehouse. You can build models with ease using click-and-drag functionality, replacing traditional drawing and data entry combinations.

Unsteady Flow Condition Analysis

Unsteady-State Module (USM) performs off-line unsteady flow condition analysis in natural gas networks. Its ease-of-use and direct compatibility with steady-state networks make it the off-line transient module of choice for gas transmission planners and designers. While SynerGEE's steady-state capabilities are appropriate for a variety of modelling and design needs, particularly for distribution systems, the unsteady-state (or transient analysis) is more applicable for analysis where time is a key factor, examples include:

• Time to failure analysis
• Assessment of lost gas through pipe failure
• Assessment of linepack variation in transmission system
• Assessment of within day pressure variations for plant design
• As with the steady-state the USM module is able to model gas composition, heat content and specific gravity as it varies with time as system supplies change.

Flexibility

USM lets you model simple or complex pipeline systems. Integrated models can include all facilities, including pipes, valves, regulators, compressors, storage fields and other special facilities. USM models complex regulator and compressor stations with multiple series elements on several parallel runs. With USM, you can model facilities as simply or in as much detail as you need.

Despite the rate of change in your transient scenario analysis, you can balance your network volumetrically or thermally. Thermal balancing options include both heat content tracing and component
tracing capabilities.

USM puts you in complete control of your simulation, allowing you to automatically or manually operate facilities during simulation. Each simulation can be paused and restarted as often as needed with the simple click of a mouse.

Enhanced Functionality

The key to off-line transient modeling is proper results management and interpretation. An unsteady state simulation can generate large amounts of data. USM lets you control data flow during simulation to make results interpretation easier. USM also offers features to enhance your overall modeling experience:

• Logical Operating Scripts expand USM's functionality and control for automating model events. The scripts capability exposes virtually all modeling features, variables and attributes for greater modeling flexibility.
• USM now offers Fast and Slow Transient Modes. The fast transient mode allows you to accurately simulate isothermal, time-varying events such as network line breaks and gas loss. The slow transient mode eliminates the unsteady-state momentum calculation to simulate slower network events occurring over time and saves considerable time and computations.
• A fully editable Results Plan allows you to interactively define charting variables before and during time-varying analysis. The plan is pre-populated with standard modeling attributes and enables you to add attributes including facilities, nodes, system variables and profile information.
• USM's Charting flexibility allows you greater control over model curve line colors, width and types and expends the number of plottable variables per axis. Hover over a point on the chart to view its associated information.