Progressive technology in the utility networks sector

When we interviewed its director and chairman of the board Michal Homola this spring, he mentioned that they wanted to bring a new compressor unit, GreenFlow 1000, for transferring high-pressure natural gas to market before the end of the year. It is a project the company came up with itself and carried all the way through to delivery. „It is a big success for the company and for me personally. We ran a pilot project in the Moravian-Silesian Region and two commercial transfer jobs in the Hradec Králové Region. In total we transferred 40,800 cubic metres of natural gas and kept it out of the atmosphere. We automated the whole process as far as we could, so that an unexpected leak or damage to the equipment shuts everything down automatically and safely. I am genuinely proud of that ‚autonomous‘ system, and the response from customers has been very positive," is how Michal Homola opened our autumn interview.

Bringing interesting innovation

What other interesting projects are you working on now, and what is coming up in the near future?

We really do have a lot of projects. If it were up to me I would work on nothing else, but construction work has to come first. Even so, we are currently preparing an in-line pipeline inspection service. Together with our foreign partner Dexon Technology Europe we want to bring very high resolution ultrasonic in-line inspection to the Czech market. Using intelligent pigs pushed through the pipeline, we can identify cracks in both the longitudinal and radial direction down to one millimetre along the entire route. The tool is adapted to the customer's requirements so that it suits the particular pipeline being inspected. We use it to find corrosion loss, internal and external, pitting corrosion, cracks, all kinds of manufacturing defects, ovality and so on. For inaccessible pipeline systems it is probably the best way to assess their condition.

Your development work also takes environmental aspects into account. The compressor unit addresses methane emissions, and recycling pre-insulated pipe saves both resources and the environment. What further goals have you set yourselves in this area?

On the project to recycle used pre-insulated pipe we are currently working on processing the recyclate into production feedstock, or possibly into finished products. The circular economy is in fashion right now, and I think applying it will only become more important.

Digitalisation is a much-discussed topic these days, in every field. How do you see digitalisation in relation to your business, and where specifically can it help you?

The generational change in the company's management brought changes in digitalisation as well. We are currently moving to new contract management processes that will give us electronic handling of a contract as it moves through the company, effective project management and digitalised processes and controlling. We have been using electronic site diary software for a while, we are starting to use drones for photogrammetry, we are working on a new online identity and much more. From where I stand these are necessities that no good company can do without.