Coal to Gas Policy Background

Pollutants emitted due to inefficient coal burning in rural areas has become a key factor of severe fog and haze for a long time. Since the State Council of PRC released the “air pollution prevention and control plan” in September 2013, coal to gas switching project has been got much attention and has been promoted in northern China, especially in 2016. It is foreseeable that the continuous severe fog and haze in recent days will make coal to gas switching much more important. According to the “He Bei Province air pollution prevention and control measures (2016-2017)” released by Hebei government, Hebei will facilitate coal to gas switching in key areas. Non-coal burning areas were specified in 18 cities and counties including Baoding, Langfang, and Renqiu that border on Beijing and Tianjin.

Enterprise Introduction

Huagang Gas was jointly invested and built by Kunlun Energy and PetroChina Huabei Oilfield Company. Within development of more than one decade, Huagang Gas has developed to a comprehensive industry chain that contains CNG and LNG production, supply, and sales from an independent urban gas supplier. With services covering nine provinces and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Henan, Huagang Gas owes 87 subsidiaries, 200,000 users, and 300 LNG gas entrapping stations in China. As a natural gas supplier, Huagang Gas signed a cooperation agreement on coal to gas switching in Renqiu with Renqiu government in Hebei in April 2016.

Challenges for Gas Enterprises

Informatization management is an efficient measure for coal to gas switching in rural areas. As most rural residents live scattered  in remote areas, they have higher requirements on safe natural gas usage which was also the most concerned by the residents .

Products and Applications

In the coal-to-gas switching project, Huagang Gas adopted Goldcard’s informatization management mode to ensure safe gas usage for residents. First of all, Goldcard’s IoT gas meters are used for all coal-to-gas switching users and Goldcard’s USmart system is used for smart management. Connected to the data center, monitor center, and IoT gas meters, Goldcard’s USmart system performs smart analysis on flow, valve, and gas usage alarms of meters for remote monitoring and management. Moreover, Goldcard’s IoT system interworks with China Construction Bank to enable recharging for rural residents. The advanced Internet+ Goldcard’s smart IoT gas meters equipped with  metering and recharging, low amount alarming, remote valve controlling  via the network,. Currently, gas supply is available for 250,000 residents in 373 Chinese villages with 14 villages gas can be interflow. 

Main Revenue or Value for Gas Enterprises

After the coal-to-gas switching, scattered coal burning is reduced by 1 million tons every year, thus reducing carbon dioxide emission by 2.6 million tons, sulfur dioxide emission by 8,500 tons, and oxynitride emission by 7,400 tons every year. Originally, several hundreds of staff are required for manual inspection of field devices and several hundreds of business halls need to be deployed. Now, with Goldcard’s informatization management and Internet technology adopted, Huagang Gas can use the remote control system to perform remote control, gas usage data collection, and remote metering. Big data storage and smart computing help improve working efficiency greatly. According to measurement and calculation, after the informatization management and Internet technology is adopted, Huagang reduced planned manpower by 80%. The balance of income and expenditure was maintained in the coal-to-gas switching project.