“Gas System of the Future” Digital Twin
IBM Client Engineering in Partnership with SGN, DNV, Esri and AWS
Envisioning the Future Energy Ecosystem
To deliver Net Zero, gas and electricity suppliers will become increasingly intertwined, with decisions on production and supply based on a series of variables, including weather, storage and wholesale prices. The interoperability of IT and OT systems and the exchange of data across the energy eco-system is critical to plan, model and optimise the balancing of supply and demand often via cross-sector integration. The gas distribution industry faces unprecedented change including decentralisation and decarbonisation with new types of green gas — biomethane and hydrogen — injected into the distribution network, and increased variability of supply and demand of gas.
Two important changes are needed for industry to meet this challenge. First, new gas producers need to connect to the distribution network. By 2030, it is estimated that 10GW of Hydrogen and 5.7bn m3 biogas will be injected into the gas distribution network. The commissioning and connections process of new plants will need to accelerate. This requires extensive changes to cross-ecosystem planning and simplification of planning, modelling and approvals across the supply chain. These changes will impact gas quality, blend and pressure at a local level.
