Commerce (Shrinkage, Line Pack Calculations, Billing)

Any gas network will have a certain gas inventory in the network itself depending on pressure profiles in the network. This is called line pack. Similarly, on a daily basis, the gas that is pushed into the network by the compressors and gas withdrawn by the users as per their quantity meters are monitored continuously. Conservation of mass demands that the total input of gas must be equal to total supplies to the users plus the additional line pack created in the pipe. This must be true for any time interval. Gas network operators do these calculations over a 24-hour period called a gas-day. The above conservation principle is often violated due to instrumentation accuracies, condensation or vaporization in pipe segments or leakage. PAnORaMA provides an automated and scientific way for these calculations.

Calculation of line pack and shrinkage is very vital to the commerce of any gas network. Disputes arise because of the methodology used for such reconciliation. These can be minimized by using PAnORaMA's scientific method instead of the approximate method used by networks operators.