Dispatching center
The New Dispatching Center
The dispatching center is a strategic infrastructure to manage gas flows on the domestic transmission network. The main gas pipelines and compressor stations that make up the Italian gas system are monitored or remote controlled 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from the operation room.
A large videowall, about 50 m2, provides operators with an overall view of the domestic gas transmission network with the main points of interest and the related process information.
It manages and controls the domestic gas transmission system to guarantee safe, reliable and efficient operations as well as balancing based on the actual gas demand, which can undergo significant oscillations during the day and week, in addition to having a marked seasonal variability. Just imagine a summer day, when consumption is normally at a minimum. Off-take can drop to 80 million m3. But during the winter, on a weekday, it can exceed 460 million m3.
How does it work?
The activity is carried out through a complex technological architecture run by the telemetry network, remote data transmission systems and centralized acquisition, supervision and control systems. The heart of the process data control system is SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), a sophisticated software that can manage the variations of more than 130,000 parameters for about 3,000 remote controlled and remotely monitored plants in real time.
The control room of the dispatching center, which operates 24 hours a day, constantly monitors the system operation parameters and the availability of gas from supply sources and processes demand predictions.
The Story
The 1960s: The dispatching center is born
Snam creates the first dispatching center to control its transmission network that, with about 700 Km in the 1950s, has grown to about 5,000 km of high pressure pipe lines, mostly located in the Po Valley.
The previous technology used telephones, radio towers and electromechanical devices.
The 1980s
A special site for the dispatching activity is created.
To deal with the expanding network, the dispatching center is further expanded with the construction of a large building designed to withstand high intensity, external stress and to house and optimize all technological services for the remote control of the transmission system.
The 2000s:
The development phase of dispatching center begins
Snam lays the bases to further develop the dispatching center in order to make it compliant with the most recent technological standards and maintain its level of excellence in the gas transmission sector. All this is done in order to integrate the Italian network with all European transmissione and transportation networks and to create a Southern European hub directly connected to the United Kingdom with the Swiss Transitgas pipeline, the German TENP pipeline, the Ditch network and the Interconnector pipeline under the English Channel.
16 March 2023 - 11:11 CET