ABSTRACT The Pipelines Authority of South Australia (PASA) operates a 410 miles (659 km), 14 inch Liquids pipeline and a 660 miles (1,060 km), 22 inch gas pipeline network supplying gas from the remote desert areas of the Cooper basin in Central Australia, to an unpredictable and transient load to Adelaide on the southern Coast of South Australia. The in-house development of an optimization system for the operation of the gas pipeline network involved many areas including, analysis of SCADA information to provide real individual compressor package performance, development of a Steady State optimization package, upgrading of a transient compressor model and establishment of meaningful performance measures for the Pipeline Controllers. The paper discusses the pipeline network, development of the compressor station model and steady state optimization programme and highlights areas of further investigations. The development process has revealed characteristics of the compressors which were previously unknown or little understood and has prompted changes in the control systems. It has also highlighted areas of individual compressor inefficiencies which can then be analysed further with regard to cost benefit analysis on repair or refurbishment. The process so far has yielded considerable fuel savings and has provided facilities for fast estimation of extraordinary operating costs for repair work, pressure restrictions, prolonged compressor unavailability etc. The process of optimization has also yielded a day to day performance measurement on pipeline operation which has given our controllers repeatable and achievable aims in operating the pipeline system and has also had considerable benefit to our gas supplier - Santos Ltd with respect to steady loads. The ongoing development is expected to yield further operational and cost benefit to the Pipelines Authority of South Australia. Optimization Compressor Modelling Transient Modelling Steady state modelling Realtime data analysis
Bioaraphical Notes Graham Broadbent graduated from the Adelaide University in 1972 having completed a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronic Engineering. He then spent some 4 years with an Australian Computer Company dedicated to the design, manufacture, sales and support of mini computer systems in the very competitive Data Entry market. This role involved in depth hardware and software development and system maintenance. In mid 1975 he was seconded to the Pipelines Authority of South Australia (PASA) for 18 months to rebuild the GAS SCADA system monitoring PASA's gas pipeline to include the remote operation and monitoring of 7 new Compressor Stations. This included a complete rewrite of all software and addition of hardware to make this system, in today's standards, a very sophisticated and functional tool for gas billing, and on-line management of Compressor Stations, Meter Stations and.Microwave Systems.