When someone mentions something like 'cloud-native IIoT' do your teeth start to clench in stress and you immediately begin to search for your antacids to ward off the quickly approaching heartburn that comes with the topic? I hear you, understand your anxiety and totally feel your pain because I've been there many times before.

That's until I started thinking of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) differently; what it really 'means' to us, the humans of the world. How it can actually help makes our lives better in several ways; like increasing the safety of many very dangerous situations, how it can even prevent terrible problems before they even happen and how it can make companies be more profitable so more people keep their jobs and prices don't over-inflate for the end buyers.

Municipal gas distribution systems require a delicate balance—keep the natural gas flowing in just the right amounts. If there’s too little, or none, people don’t get something the really need. The heater won’t run, they can't cook, the clothes dryer won't work; you know the consequences.

But too much is also a problem, one which can have massively dangerous consequences—especially if it’s natural gas! But there are thousands of people turning natural gas on and off across, in larger cities, dozens of square miles. Knowing how to manage pressures and flow rates is critical to people. Or when there is an over-pressure situation, being aware of it, and having the ability to quickly detect it and fix it before it gets out of hand can be life-saving.

System-wide efficiency; instant response to incidents; boost public safety.

These are the top benefits to using DeltaV™ SaaS for municipal gas distribution systems. In medium to large cities these systems can involve thousands of miles of pipelines, dozens of pump stations and hundreds of valves and controls.

Monitoring pumps and pressures manually is almost impossible, the worst-case scenario being the 2018 Massachusetts line over-pressure incident that injured 22 people and drove hundreds from their homes. There the pressure sensors had been disconnected during a pipeline upgrade and control was lost.

Going digital doesn't have to be riddled with complexity or long drawn out time-frames. In fact, it can really be easy, painless and fast and yet still make a huge positive impact on your business.

To stay competitive your company must focus on implementing new digital technologies into your operations to deliver more value to your customers and enable staff to do their job better and with less available internal resources.

To build a digital ecosystem for all stakeholders inside and outside your company means executing digital change activities. Emerson’s DeltaV™ SaaS SCADA is a perfect partner on that journey. We serve various industries and can guide your Digital Transformation journey to your desired destination, and even autonomous operations.

Digital transformation projects usually require many complex steps. Each of these steps requires a well thought out, budgeted, and highly detailed plan. Who provides that plan will be your companies key to successfully reaching that desired destination for your operations on your time-frame and your budget requirements.

The world moves pretty fast these days with all the constant change from every direction. To stay ahead of all the crazy it's important to consider all your options and then move quickly to implement your strategy into action.

It wasn't all that long ago many companies were faced with difficult decisions, and few of those difficult decisions are harder than layoffs. It's never an easy decision. But in a downturn, it’s a necessary evil to save the company as a whole—with great hope you can welcome those same talented people back when the inevitable upturn happens.

The hard truth is that before that upturn actually happens many of those talented people will have retired, switched career paths, started their own business or even traded their safety glasses in for sunglasses in a tropical paradise.

There are some things you need to be notified of somewhat quickly, but not instantly. But some things you need to know instantly. Like where your keys are when you’re late for work. But if you work for a municipal gas company, an over-pressure situation takes priority over pretty much everything else for safety. And instantly, is just barely fast enough.

It’s why so many companies are digitally transforming their line monitoring—and Emerson's DeltaV™ SaaS is leading the way.

Sensors placed at critical points throughout your system, you—and all authorized personnel who need to respond—will be notified quickly when an over-pressure situation happens. That way you can make adjustments, in person or remotely.

For gas regulators, the need to replace IT systems can be for various reasons. Their system no longer serves their business operations, wants to launch new initiatives, or unexpected events make them re-evaluate the need for a reliable backup system.

According to local power companies, more than 4.4 million customers were without power in the winter of 2021 deep freeze in Houston, Texas. Cold weather shut natural gas production and pipelines, which refineries use in power generation. Widespread power outages and instability of external power supply forced shutdowns across the state.

Natural Gas is one of few fuel sources that's delivered directly to us, the consumers. Natural gas regulators are responsible for maintaining and operating gas pipelines and facilities up to the residential gas meter. Because it's an explosive and dangerous fluid, they must prioritize safety and take the necessary precautions to protect systems and prevent accidents. 

Recently, we've witnessed, even with all the safety procedures in place, events out of our control can still occur. 

We help Local Natural Gas Distribution companies (utilities regulated by states) find solutions to aid them in meeting safety and state regulations, such as an over-pressure condition occurring on the distribution system that can affect all customers served by the system.

Gas distribution organizations can quickly and easily increase safety and efficiency by hosting their data in Emerson's DeltaV SaaS cloud-native IIoT platform. Our intuitive, scalable cloud-based platform supports any digital monitoring hardware for real-time data with an aggregated view of operations. Our platform provides a flexible, secure solution for data acquisition, remote monitoring, remote control, and alarm management.

We simplify the connection between sensors to get you the data you need to make better business decisions. All communication is encrypted and secured with evergreen software and releases. When using our software, you’ll have many ways of sending and sharing data with other applications.