Duke, Accenture, Microsoft team on methane detection
North Carolina’s Duke Energy said August 23 it would team with Accenture and Microsoft to develop a new technology platform designed to measure baseline methane emissions from natural gas distribution systems.
The platform will provide near-real-time data collection, which will allow Duke’s field response teams to move quickly to identify and repair methane leaks.
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The cloud-hosted platform will also track and prioritise data associated with leaks using a variety of advance detection methods, including satellites, fixed-wing aircrafts and ground-level sensing technology.
As a part of the platform’s development, the companies will execute monthly satellite captures in Greenville, SC, beginning in August to further refine the technology for identifying methane leaks on Duke’s pipeline system. Duke anticipates implementing its methane-monitoring platform by October 2021.
“This platform will re-imagine how natural gas local distribution companies calculate methane emissions and perform leak surveys and improve the expediency in which leaks may be repaired, resulting in dramatically lower methane emissions,” said Brian Weisker, senior vice president and chief operations officer, natural gas at Duke Energy. “The current industry standard uses calculated data to report methane emissions, which leaves room for inaccuracies when it comes to actual methane levels.”
Duke Energy began testing satellites for detecting leaks on its natural gas system in 2020 and found that satellite detection has the potential to be more accurate and a more expedient way to locate leaks when compared to traditional methods such as aerial and foot patrols.