Break from the Shackles-Mid-to-Large Size Facilities Verify Utility Company Billing

As we have all been hearing in the news, natural gas is becoming a very valuable and abundant natural resource. Almost all of this increase is due to the projected growth in shale gas production which will grow to 16.7 trillion cubic feet in 2040. Now comes the big question: how are utility companies going to capitalize on this natural gas boom and how will consumers fare? This is where accurate natural gas measurement becomes critical both for utility companies and consumers, particularly in larger gas consuming mid-to-large size facilities.

Without natural gas billing verification, mid-to-large size facilities are at the mercy of utility company billing.  To break the shackles of utility companies, mid-to-large size facilities use mass flow meters to sub-meter the natural gas entering their facility. This verifies their utility bill and shows billing discrepancies. This obviously sounds like a good idea. But not many mass flow meters can accurately measure natural gas with its changing compositions and delivery pressure.  The answer to this challenging application is to use a flow meter that can deal with the changing gas compositions and density changes caused by pressure variations.

In the September/October 2013 issue of Gases & Instrumentation magazine, Sierra’s VP of Product Design, Scott Rouse, takes an in-depth look at sub-metering natural gas, including challenges associated with the varying composition of natural gas and the flow meter measurement solutions Sierra is committed to providing.

We hope you find this article insightful and encourage you to visit our Library for other in-depth articles on flow meter measurement.