Leveraging Operational Parameters to Identify and Predict Emission Events
Many TEP operators are exploring how to use existing SCADA systems that collect, monitor, and control field operations remotely to predict, prevent, and report on emission events.
For example, flow meters or changes in pressure, temperature, electricity, or wind can be monitored to optimize production or serve as a precursor to predict an emissions event. Operators have been collecting operational parameter data for a number of years, and through their ingenuity, have begun to look at the data to systematically prevent and respond faster to operational conditions which could result in emissions. Operational parameter data can also be used to constrain the duration of an operational upset or potentially be used to estimate volumes where process metering is available (e.g., unlit flare with a meter), to inform emissions reporting initiatives.
In 2024, The Partnership organized an effort to develop a performance practice on the use of operational parameters data and other operational information to predict, prevent, and report emissions sources more accurately. TEP focused its project on the sources of emissions that are typically higher – namely tanks, flares and compressors.
Twelve operating companies, ranging from small private operators to major integrated corporations, shared their operating practices. This individual sharing was then compiled into a draft performance practice which was reviewed within appropriate TEP workgroups and further refined during an operational parameters monitoring panel discussion held at the Fall TEP Permian Basin workshop.
This guidance is now available to all participants within TEP’s online resources repository and serves as a tool to help TEP operators make more informed decisions on whether monitoring such parameters at existing facilities or as part of the design of new facilities is fit for purpose within their operations and emissions management practices