Scope
Natural gas asset management is included in the comprehensive portfolio of energy management services that our Energy Supply Advisory team provides for one of the world’s leading automotive manufacturers. The service includes daily balancing of the client’s capacity on a major pipeline in the eastern United States.
Upon assuming responsibility of the account, our team of energy experts analyzed the client’s current situation and determined that they had incurred more than $335,000 in overrun penalties on this pipeline in each of the previous two years.
The penalties were a result of inaccurate forecasting of the client’s daily natural gas requirements and a lack of proactive asset management.
Our team diligently investigated all aspects of the customer’s capacity contract and the corresponding system requirements. With a full understanding of the actions required to minimize the penalties, we first focused on working with the local plant personnel to improve the forecasting accuracy for the amount of gas they need on a daily basis, and established routine communication processes between Edison Energy and the facility personnel. This provides our team with near real-time production and natural gas usage expectations from the plant, and we are able to use the information to actively manage the customer’s pipeline capacity.
This process improvement allows our team to keep the client’s gas supply within the required tolerances on a daily basis, and thus avoid the costly penalties previously experienced.
Project Results & Key Metrics:
Reduced overrun penalties by more than 60% in one year
Customer Value
Our expert, proactive approach in managing the customer’s pipeline capacity has helped the client to better understand how to manage their energy needs, and as a result, has reduced overrun penalties by more than 60% in just one year. This places them at the optimal performance level relative to the variability existent in their manufacturing process.
Download a PDF of the Gas Operational Expertise case study here