Bidegas, a comprehensive solution to enhance facility safety and energy efficiency in natural gas consumption, thanks to a partnership agreement between Nortegas and EVE.

Nortegas is to install 1000 smart meters thanks to the partnership with Ugao-Miraballes Town Council. The metres will allow customers to always be able to check their consumption, while at the same time as providing real time monitoring of the safety of the customers’ facilities.

Ugao-Miraballes, 16 December 2019.- The Basque Energy Board and Nortegas have entered into a partnership to drive the introduction of smart networks in the Basque Country. Bidegas, a project to allow the gradual installation of smart meters throughout the Basque Autonomous Community, has been set up in that framework. The first stage will be implemented in Ugao-Miraballes.

The new Nortegas smart network is equipped with appropriate telecommunication and electronic elements to provide essential information, both to the distributor company and to the natural gas customers, in order to guarantee more reliable and efficient consumption management and to lead to improve the quality of the supply and service to customers.

Nortegas’s CEO, Javier Contreras, has expressed his satisfaction with the progress of a project that he considers to be “very exciting for Nortegas, as it strengthens our commitment to the environment in which we operate and helps to notably improve the safety of the facilities of energy efficient, which are two objectives that are at the very core of our company’s DNA. And that, clearly, is good news for everyone”. Contreras went on to explain that “the company is fully committed to innovation aimed at driving solutions to pave the way to an increasingly more sustainable future, where natural gas is positioned as fundamental in the energy transaction. And this project clearly demonstrates that we are on the right path to achieve it”.

The Mayor of Ugao Miraballes, Ekaitz Mentxaka, stressed that “the comprehensive implementation of this digital system for the gas service to be better managed is, undoubtedly, very good news for Ugao-Miraballes. Ensuring that the local residents are cared for and safe is one of the main proprieties underpinning the local council’s political action. We are aware that technological development is fundamental in sectors such as the energy one. Technology makes our lives easier and this project, apart from committing to efficiency and improving the quality of the service, and also helps us to make the Ugao-Miraballes households safer”.

The General Manager of the Basque Energy Board, Iñigo Ansola, stressed the importance of advancing in technologies “aimed at energy consumption efficiency” and, specifically, in the case of natural gas, he stressed that it is great step forward to be able to install smart meters and systems “that have a bearing on the safety and control of the consumption”. Ansola also recalled the importance of natural gas in the Basque Country as a “transition energy source towards another energy model and it is important that its consumption should be as efficient as possible”.

Nortegas is embarking on a pilot scheme in Ugao-Miraballes.  It is estimated to last between four and six months, during which time the local residents will be the first beneficiaries to use gas smart networks in Europe.

Thus, during this pilot scheme, and totally free-of-charge, Nortegas will replace the natural gas meter of each customer of the municipality for a smart one, which will allow the distributor to have real time information to act immediately as needed or possible risk situations at the customers’ premises.

Furthermore, depending on the type of premises, Norgas will place carbon monoxide and/or methane sensors in the kitchens of the homes in order to detect possible gas leaks or poor combustion in the boilers.

Finally, and using a simple app on their mobile phones, the local residents will have a two-way communication platform with Nortegas that, on the one hand, will enable them to use the energy more efficiently thanks to greater knowledge and control of their consumption. On the other hand, they will be able to access notifications of interest, such as safety tips or messages about forthcoming inspection visits. Finally, they will have to hand immediate and detailed online information on any incident that may occur both at their premises and in the Nortegas network.

In order to detect those incidents, the company will be able to programme alarms associated to a maximum daily volume of gas consumption, alert customers to alarms linked to the gas supply and remotely operate the meter valve. That would be triggered in cases such as when anomalies occur in gas consumption (values over the set point, evidence of leaks or potential risk), when the installed sensor system detects presence of methane/CO in the complex or with other possible services that must take action regarding this valve.