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FEATURE
SENSORS & SENSING SYSTEMS
developing an optiCal sensing system for
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monitoring UndergroUnd gas storage With 24/7 monitoring of gas storage fields vital, advanced sensing
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company Paulsson set about designing, building, installing and monitoring a robust and accurate test system featuring optical sensing technologies for Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E). Not only has the system proved ideal for real-time gas flow detection and monitoring, but it has also picked up acoustic signals from earthquakes over 8,000km away
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eeding an accurate and reliable system for monitoring a large Underground Gas Storage (UGS) field, California-based
utility company, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), partnered with Paulsson to seek research funding from California Energy Commission (CEC) to develop and field test a real-time 24/7 monitoring system. The CEC approved the proposal, resulting in a three-year research project which started in mid-2020. Paulsson is a Los Angeles based advanced
sensing technology company, known for inventing, designing, manufacturing and deploying proprietary all-optical sensors into deep, high-temperature and high-pressure boreholes. For this application, Paulsson’s solution was an acoustic and ultra-large aperture antenna based on fibre optic sensing technology, using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology from Fotech, a bp Launchpad company. Following the installation, the system has achieved real-time gas flow detection and
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monitoring both in the well and in the formation, which is a world first for this type of application. The system has also recorded numerous small and large earthquakes from nearby faults and those as far away as Japan and Peru, providing valuable information about the UGS formation properties using these natural near and far seismic sources.
aCCUrate monitoring
PG&E is one of the largest Public Utility Companies in the US, owning and maintaining more than 6,000 miles of transmission pipelines, 42,000 miles of distribution pipelines and three natural gas storage facilities. Its largest gas storage field is based at
McDonald Island, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in California. It has a maximum capacity of 82 BCF and can provide 25% of Northern California’s winter peak-day gas demand. There are 87 total wells, 81 of which operate for injection and withdrawal; the other six operate as observation wells. When gas
1 DESIGN SOLUTIONS NOVEMBER 2022
demand is low, gas is injected into underground storage facilities, and when demand is highest during winter months, dry hydro-drought years, and a hot summer’s AC peak, gas is withdrawn to generate electric power. Monitoring of gas storage fields is vital to
ensure the safety of the local community and environment, to potentially optimise operations and diversify gas resources, and to protect shareholders and ratepayers from the high cost of disruptions and accidents. With the utility company recognising that
it needed a robust and accurate way of monitoring its field, it partnered with Paulsson to provide and test a solution.
Challenging Conditions
Paulsson offers Extremely Accurate Sub-Surface Surveying and Monitoring solutions using state- of-the-art fibre optic Acoustic and Vector Seismic Sensors as well as Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS) and Distributed Strain Sensor (DSS) Technologies. The company has many
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