AMG Energia

After the change from a municipal-run to special company, today AMG Energia is a joint-stock company with shares owned by the Municipality of Palermo, which deals with energy, methane distribution and public lighting. Its objective is to offer a service to citizens with high standards of quality.

Needs

The natural gas pressure reducing and metering station was built to support the existing station to handle the increase in flow that will be achieved with the extension and completion of the distribution grids envisaged in the methanisation project of the City of Palermo.

Solutions

Inside the station, the gas is filtered (i.e. cleaned) by a dual-line filtering group with a nominal diameter of DN 300, and metered with traditional G4000 turbine meters that check the quantity of incoming gas (about 81,000 Sm3/h). The station, made up of 8 rooms, is set up to receive gas from the transport grid owned by Snam Rete Gas at a variable pressure between 12 and 70 bar. Six large reducers with a nominal diameter of DN 150 (three for service and three for emergencies) form the heart of the system, i.e. pressure reduction equipment. Downstream from the reducers, a pneumatic system for controlling the pressure and the output flow rate of each line was applied. Following the substantial reduction in pressure (65 bar), the methane gas is cooled by more than 26°C and it is therefore necessary to heat it to guarantee the correct operation of the equipment. The hot water preheating system consists of 12 boilers with a 2700 kW atmospheric burner. The odourising system consists of two interconnected 265-litre tanks (one for storage and the other for service) and an automatic electronic injection system patented by CPL CONCORDIA. Two emergency devices complete the station’s equipment: a diesel generator ensures continuous operation of the system and a UPS powers the electronic equipment.

Advantages

The plant is equipped with a system patented by CPL CONCORDIA for the self-regulation of the odourisation rate proportional to the variation in the flow rate.