Technical aspects of natural gas energy metering implementation

In modern conditions, the issue of the quality of natural gas, including the development of gas energy measuring instruments, is becoming increasingly relevant. The Law of Ukraine “On the natural gas market” establishes the need for instrumental metering of natural gas “in order to obtain and register reliable information about the volumes and quality of natural gas during its transportation, distribution, supply, storage and consumption”. In accordance with the “Rules of natural gas supply” in force in Ukraine, settlements with consumers for natural gas should be carried out in cubic meters, reduced to standard conditions and expressed in energy units. However, this contradicts the requirement of the “Technical Regulations on measuring instruments”, which state that settlements with consumers should be based on the results of measuring gas volumes read from the indicating device. However, the indicating devices of gas meters that are operated in Ukraine reflect the measured volumes of gas in cubic meters. Currently, the requirements of the above regulatory documents are partially implemented, in particular, in full-scale industry and partly in the municipal sphere, the readings of measuring the volume of gas by the meters are being adjusted depending on the temperature and pressure of the gas. The purpose of this work is to assess the regulatory requirements and technical possibilities of introducing natural gas metering in energy units in Ukraine. It is proposed to use energy conversion devices to determine the energy of natural gas. A methodology has been developed for measuring natural gas energy by indirect methods based on measurements of the consumed gas volumes, air temperature around the gas meter and the results of measuring the calorific value of gas. The assessment of the metrological characteristics of the indirect measurement of natural gas energy has been carried out.   Keywords: natural gas; energy; volume conversion device.