ABB India, THINK Gas join hands to manage city gas operations

THINK Gas has deployed ABB Ability™ SCADAvantage system to monitor and control its gas distribution network which supplies Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to over 500 fuel stations in India.

ABB India has entered into partnership with THINK Gas successfully commissioning its ABB Ability™ SCADAvantage solution. This will enable end-to-end automation and digitalisation of THINK Gas Pvt. Ltd. (formerly AG&P Pratham) City Gas Distribution (CGD) network spanning ten Indian states.The network spans 19 Geographical Areas (GAs) across Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, comprising 500+ CNG stations, approximately 550,000 registered DPNG connections and around 17,000 inch-km of steel pipeline connecting industrial and commercial establishments.

Using ABB’s cloud-based automation platform, THINK Gas has centralised operations and real-time visibility of its CGD networks from its control room in Chennai.

Chiradeep Datta, Chief Operating Officer, THINK Gas, said, “At THINK Gas, we always aim to be at the forefront in adopting global best practices in safety processes, leveraging cutting-edge technology, and building robust infrastructure to deliver natural gas to our customers while catering to their diverse energy needs. We are proud to partner with ABB India on this transformative project, ensuring a secure energy supply for millions of Indians. By digitalising and centralising our natural gas distribution networks, we have significantly boosted operational efficiency, optimised manpower requirements, and leveraged real-time data to make better decisions.”

ABB’s SCADAvantage centralises and controls the natural gas distribution networks, ensuring efficient energy distribution from the source to end users. The platform enables centralised price management and billing, helps in gas planning and gas reconciliation, pressure and flow control, and improves data accuracy and integrity. With the help of ABB, THINK Gas says it was able to significantly reduce natural gas distribution operational costs, especially operator costs, by up to 60 percent. Since implementation, the solution has led to improved process times, enhanced responsiveness, and greater control of operational parameters across the CGD network.

G. Balaji, SVP of the Energy Industries division at ABB India, said, “As India scales up its energy initiatives in step with the increasing demand, ABB technology solutions like SCADAvantage are set to play an important role in achieving operational excellence across the country’s energy value chain. We are proud to lead this effort, having automated and digitalised 80 percent of the country’s city gas distribution networks.”

India has announced a commitment to increase natural gas usage, as part of its wider energy mix, to 15 percent by 2030. The country has witnessed expansion in its CGD infrastructure over the past decade, supporting the supply of cooking fuel like piped natural gas to households and industrial and commercial units and transportation fuel like CNG to vehicles.