A MAJOR energy company is carrying out engineering work to update equipment that will massively reduce carbon dioxide emissions - equal to taking 38,000 cars off the road.

National Grid of the UK is to spend 23 million pounds in installing new equipment at 2,000 gas governor sites across the north-west of England, the Midlands and East Anglia to give greater control over the pressure of gas being fed through the network pipes that supply homes and businesses.

The gas-on-demand work has been approved by industry regulator Ofgem. Each of the sites identified will be connected to a central computer system via a data transfer link that will allow local need for gas to be constantly monitored and pressures modified accordingly.

At present, most governors that regulate the gas pressure in the supply pipes have their pressure set manually and usually operate at one pressure during peak hours of demand and then at a different pressure during times of low demand.

National Grid is working in partnership with Multi-Tech Contracts Ltd to install the equipment in substations. Multi-Tech engineers are installing data transfer links and new pressure-control equipment at each of the governor kiosks identified as part of the scheme. The equipment is solar powered, adding to the already green credentials of the scheme.

The installation of the equipment will allow pressures to change, day and night, to mirror demand. This will save on the throughput of gas and will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for the CO2-saving equivalent to the output of 38,000 cars.

Mark Williams is leading the emissions reduction programme and said: "The installation of this technology allows us to optimise the operation of the local distribution network. We will be able to automatically alter the pressure of the governor to meet changes in demand. At present, the system does not have this flexibility and we are feeding gas into the pipeline system at pressures which are potentially higher than is required. In most cases, the only way we have of altering pressures now is to dispatch an engineer to do this manually."

Williams added: "Many of the governor stations we are visiting are remote - it would have been extremely costly to lay conventional landlines and electricity cables to these sites and so we decided to use GSM and solar power technology across the board."

In addition, Multi-Tech is also upgrading other equipment to meet the latest specifications at all the governor kiosks its engineers visit.

Williams said: "We have been working to a very green agenda with this project. The overall aim is to reduce our carbon footprint and we have looked carefully at every aspect of the delivery on the ground to make sure it is a green initiative through and through."

A spokesman added that National Grid is an international electricity and gas company and one of the largest investor-owned energy groups in the world. It plays a vital role in delivering gas and electricity to millions of people across the UK and the north-east United States in an efficient, reliable and safe manner.

It owns the high-voltage electricity transmission network in England and Wales and operates the system across Britain. It also owns and operates the high-pressure gas transmission system in Britain and its distribution business delivers gas to 11 million homes and businesses.