Computer support of gas transmission pipeline operations

Gas transmission pipelines differ substantially in their operating characteristics from other types of operating plants. Pipeline operations are directly dependent upon actions taken by customers to increase or decrease the quantity of gas consumed without any assurance that they will notify pipeline operations of their intent or even past action. In addition, events such as ambient temperature changes or pipeline leakage will affect pipeline operations. Although transient flow technology has improved in the past two decades, there is still a substantial amount of computation required to determine the optimal action to take based on the operating characteristics of gas transmission pipelines. By using microcomputers to implement computationally efficient Kalman filters, significant events affecting pipeline operations are more readily detectable.