Historically methane gas has been considered a safety issue, methane gas leaks were bad because of the risk of explosion or asphyxiation. But, in this brave new world of climate change and net zero commitments, methane gas leak levels set the pace for warming in the near term. That is because methane has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. In response to the damage caused by methane gas emissions the EU published its Methane Strategy in Oct 2020. With this document stating that the energy sector was responsible for 19% of EU human made methane emissions and the below statement, the writing was on the wall for big changes to how our gas production, infrastructure and transport system operators will be required to handle methane gas leaks.
In December 2021 the EU published their proposal for a ‘Regulation on methane emissions reductions in the energy sector’:and it makes striking reading. In a nutshell operators will be required to survey ALL assets for leaks every 3 months, report and fix all leaks above 500 ppm within 15 days.
Monitoring requirements vary a lot by country, some do a visual inspection once a year of their high pressure networks, others every two weeks but NOBODY, (if I am wrong please let me know) is testing their entire network for leaks every 3 months.
The other striking element is the 500ppm threshold. Again rules vary a lot by country but because methane gas leaks are currently treated as a safety, not an environmental issue, methane leaks leading to concentration levels of over 10,000 ppm usually trigger some form of immediate fix or mitigation action, with leaks leading to lower ppm levels having a sliding scale of required intervention timescales.
So while this proposed EU regulation may get altered on its path to being fully adopted, it does, quite rightly, represent a seismic shift in how methane gas leakage is perceived, monitored and hopefully drastically reduced.
So how are our network operators and infrastructure owners going to meet this monitoring challenge in a way that doesn’t have a huge CO2 footprint? Can satellites play a role in quarterly methane gas leak detection at scale? Technically the answer is yes, both indirectly by using satellites to detect areas with an elevated risk of a gas leak; and directly via very sensitive methane monitoring sensors onboard satellites that are already in orbit. Plus there are new providers, more capacity and more sensitive higher resolution methane gas sensors on the way. My big concern is that the earth observation sector and regulation don’t talk the same language. In slightly simple terms satellite methane monitoring communicates results as atmospheric concentration of methane in ‘parts per billion’ but regulation talks about point source concentration of methane in ‘parts per million’.
Sadly in this instance you cannot just multiply ppm by 1000 to get the equivalent in ppb…
Spottitt is working with gas network operators and satellite data providers to ensure progress is not slowed by a difference in units.
Lucy Kennedy, co-founder, CEO and EO Evangelist
Geo-spatial insights from the Spottitt MF Demo of Climate Conditions Monitoring, devoted to the ongoing COP27 climate conference in Sharm-El-Sheikh.
Key takeaways:
In the last 5 years, the Egyptian power grid experienced fewer high wind incidents compared to the previous 5 years, yet they impacted a larger portion of the network…
Spottitt is excited to announce its involvement in the delivery of one of only 18 projects selected to receive just under 400k GBP Alpha Phase SIF (Strategic Innovation Fund) funding. The funding is awarded by Ofgem and Innovate UK and aims to find and fund ambitious, innovative projects with the potential to accelerate the transition to net zero. These projects aim to help shape the future of the gas and electricity networks across the UK and beyond.
Following a year of rapid growth inline with the founding team’s targets and ambitions to disrupt the geospatial industry with a flexible analytics solution that meets the needs of any business user in different industries, Spottitt is seeking new equity investors to raise $2M, part of which already committed by current shareholders and managers.
Extreme weather events have a tremendous humanitarian and economic impact on local communities and damage our critical infrastructure. They affect the safety of pipelines, disrupt transportation and distribution systems, cause power outages, impact clean water delivery and waste water handling.
Come to say hi and learn about how our digital inspection solution helps utility companies around the world improve their network performance and resiliency by employing high-res satellite imagery and AI technology.
Spottitt is happy to announce two winners of free Proof of Concepts (PoC). With the Spottitt MF beta program, Spottitt gave the chance to two utility network operators to get a free high-resolution analysis of 100 km of assets.
We won’t stop until satellite analytics become the norm for large and small businesses Worldwide, to monitor their assets at scale in a sustainable way.
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