Control technologies for the one-key start and stop of compressor stations of gas pipelines

With the reform of the production management mode of natural gas pipelines, the regional management of the compressor stations has been gradually promoted as an advanced management concept and needs various production and operation technologies to support it, such as regional management, unattended station and remote control. The one-key start and stop technology is the important technical foundation for the regional management of compressor station. In this paper, Gaizhou Compressor Station was taken as a pilot project. The hardware foundation to achieve one-key start-stop station was prepared by taking a series of optimization measures at the compressor station of gas pipeline, e.g. the fully automatic control and transformation of station and compressor process, the optimization of control system configuration, the in-depth integration of station control and compressor control system and the integration of compressor auxiliary system. From the perspective of software function, the one-key start-stop station is divided into one-key start station and one-key stop station. The one-key start is composed of 6 parts, i.e., state feedback and alarming detection, automatically conducting technological processes inside stations, self-start and stop of compressed air system, automatic distribution of air blowers in compressor workshop, one-key start of compressor set, and automatic commission and quit of anti-surge control and load distribution. Based on the 3 stop models of compressor set and their technical requirements, the one-key stop station is divided into 5 automatic stop modes, i.e., normal stop, multi-machine stop, multi-machine pressure maintaining stop, total-station ESD, and multi-machine pressure relief stop. The successful application of the pilot project at Gaizhou Compressor Station reveals the major advancement in the control level of compressor stations in China, and provides the experience and technical base for the construction and reconstruction of the subsequent compressor stations and the reference for the one-key start and stop of long-distance liquid pipelines.