By Vivek Chitale, Principal Adviser, Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board
In the early 2000s, e-governance operations were largely dependent on a single technology area or platform. This featured databases, front end and back end supported by management information system applications that generated various reports. Today, the availability of various technology interventions has led to an era of fusion of various technologies.
In many areas, there is now greater availability of high-bandwidth connectivity, which was previously limited, creating challenges in adopting digital applications. Cloud resources are now available through government framework. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) integrations and digital payment systems are also in place. Further, artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining momentum, with many applications expected to be AI-driven. Location-based services are also getting increasingly deployed. Moreover, India has emerged as a leader in satellite data, with the help of very high-resolution transponders from Indian satellites. High-resolution satellite data is now available at the range of around 0.5 metres and below.
Meanwhile, the government is empowering citizens with the adoption of a mobile-first approach, under which all applications must be accessible through mobile devices. Further, Aadhaar is being integrated for user authentication, e-KYC (electronic know your customer), de-duplication exercises and other applications. This ultimately represents a fusion of various technologies, measures and abilities.
Digital initiatives by PNGRB
Over the past two years, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has worked extensively on the development of digital platforms. One of the applications currently in place is the National Hydrocarbons Infrastructure Monitoring System (NHIMS). While it is live, access is restricted to authorised users.
On the city gas distribution (CGD) side, a unified piped natural gas (PNG) portal is coming up to provide a platform for customers to register. There is also a committee looking into the draft guidelines on baseline IT infrastructure. The PNGRB is, hence, already driving several initiatives and taking various steps in this direction.
NHIMS
Objectives and key features
The NHIMS is a service-oriented architecture and secure framework for data collection and processing. It features real-time data from various entities through application programming interface (API) integration. It facilitates the availability of operational data on gas volumes that have been picked up and delivered to various CGD entities and plants.
The NHIMS mobile app is already in place for geotagging petroleum and natural gas infrastructure, including refineries, petroleum and natural gas pipelines, liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, petroleum storage facilities, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bottling plants, retail outlets, etc. The app also facilitates conducting inspections for under-construction pipelines, while also covering new upcoming pipelines and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) pipelines.
The strong database comprising natural gas pipelines and petroleum product pipelines is also integrated with the main administrative set-up of roads, railway lines, rivers, forests, administrative boundaries ranging from state boundaries, district boundaries and block boundaries, etc.
It also features a bulletin board with information on pipelines, strongly supported by dashboards and other features. Data is received daily through API integration covering volumes obtained from various sources such as LNG terminals or domestic ONGC terminals, as well as quantities delivered in a day.
The NHIMS has also been integrated with the upcoming PNG portal in order to identify the serviceability of the CGD network within 100 metres.
The NHIMS has strong GIS functionalities, while also featuring geographical area boundaries. Exceptions including leftover and overlapping areas, and areas where CGD entities enter knowingly or unknowing are also being raised.
The application is hosted on Meghraj 2, a national government cloud. It is also compliant with all security guidelines and the SMS gateway has been approved by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India under the exemption category.
The functional architecture of the NHIMS features integration with RESTful Webservices through the API.
Capabilities
The NHIMS dashboard comprises information relating to natural gas infrastructure, including the number of LNG terminals, compressed biogas (CBG) plants, compressed natural gas (CNG) stations, LNG stations, etc., and information on petroleum product pipelines including the number of LPG plants, storage depots and refineries.
The platform provides a typical pipeline map of the country featuring natural gas and petroleum product pipelines. It enables users to search for various CNG stations on the basis of state, model or category. This information is also made available through GIS-based mapping. Moreover, users can obtain information regarding particular CNG stations such as the ownership and associated CGD entity. Similar information is also available for CBG plants across the country, including their status such as whether it has been initiated, or operations have commenced, or if it is under approval.
The platform also provides countrywide mapping of geographical area (GA) boundaries, including GA IDs and the corresponding CGD entity. These are integrated on to the national map and are supported by high-resolution satellite data, street map and other thematic layers that can be overlaid for detailed analysis. High-resolution images for particular regions can also be obtained featuring multiple layers. Moreover, the GIS platform also facilitates various calculations including area, distance measurement and routes. This eliminates the need for paper maps and enables planning and decision-making through a single digital system.
NHIMS bulletin board
The bulletin board provides a comprehensive view of the pipeline, comprising the entry point, multiple delivery or exit points, compressors and pumping stations. Delivery points may include CGD companies, fertiliser plants, thermal plants and other consumers. Daily data on capacities that have been picked up and delivered is received, enabling the assessment of pipeline utilisation and helping the PNGRB in identifying potential issues. It also receives gas chromatographic data on parameters including temperature, pressure and the composition of ethane, methane and sulphur through the API. It also provides a range of graphs and charts to monitor utilisation, along with other parameters.
Focus on CGD
The CGD segment is a key focus area. It is seen that GAs authorised by PNGRB may overlay administrative boundaries. Some GAs can span multiple states, while others could cover parts of a few districts. This makes the administrative set-up more complex.
To address this, the “Know your GA” feature has been made available on the main portal. It provides a country map of all GAs and the corresponding entities. Users can select an entity to view the number of GAs that it administers and other details.
This is also being offered as an API for integration as per the CBG scheme. This will help identify relevant GAs for CBG entities.
Integration for PNG serviceability
The NHIMS has also been integrated with the MyPNG portal to support PNG serviceability. The portal will provide customers with a single point of registration for PNG connections. However, a key challenge for customers is determining whether a PNG network exists in their area or not, and if so, in identifying the proximity of the network to their location.
To address this issue, integration has been carried out with the MyPNG portal. When the customer inputs information, the location information is then picked up and connected with the NHIMS to assess serviceability. Once the consumer’s locational information reaches the NHIMS, it determines the distance from the nearest PNG network. The entire process has now been automated, from the submission of the consumer’s details for a PNG connection to determining the network availability and serviceability.
Around 232 GAs of the CGD network have been already integrated with the NHIMS, with the remaining GAs to be covered soon. This will provide an entire view of the CGD network across 309 GAs.
The way forward
There is a greater emphasis being placed on CGD entities to computerise and digitalise their networks. While a few CGD entities have come forward with GIS-enabled networks, many are still lagging in converting the physical network into a GIS-based network. There is, hence, a need to speed up this conversion to ensure that registrations through MyPNG can be effectively handled and serviced. This is particularly important as there have been instances of CGD networks extending into other GAs knowingly or unknowingly.
One of the key challenges is, however, obtaining the data, as some entities do have reservations regarding sharing it. For instance, for the government, the ministry and the regulator, the availability of data remains a key challenge. On the positive side, interoperable issues that existed in earlier years have majorly been overcome. Given the current era of fusion of technologies, various channels and technologies are now available, which can be integrated with the systems.
Around 232 GAs of the CGD network have been already integrated with the NHIMS, with the remaining GAs to be covered soon.
