Question:
Identify the data that should be incorporated into CGC’s new system to provide adequate planning capability. Explain why each data item it is important and the level of detail needed for the data to be useful.
Answer:
Several data are identified that needs to incorporate into CGC’s new system to provide adequate planning capability. These data are associated with the external and internal business factor of the company which influence the volume of the business in different time of the year.
Number of customer – This is the most important data that should be projected in the monthly basis to understand the volume of the business according to the customer growth. While incorporating this data in the new system customer count should be broken down in three categories that are residential, commercial and industrial (Lund et al. 2014).
Weather data – Requirement of heating is associated with the weather. Generally, hot year will demand less gas as compared to the cold year therefore company should incorporate short-term weather data into their system however, average monthly weather data is more important to predict the demand.
Heating factors – Weather data is converted into heating factors, which will determine the demand of the gas. Seasonal factor has lot of influence in the requirement of heating through the customer base. There are different heating requirement in different season by different customer categories of customer. Therefore, CGC has to incorporate the data to understand the fluctuating customer demand (Belkin, Nichol and Woehrel 2013).
Customer unit demand – The monthly consumption for residential and commercial customer is also important to understand the long-term and seasonal trend of the market. This data will be used to project the customer wise and zone wise sales data that will also help to allocate natural gas during the demanding situation.
Sales forecast – The data of sales forecast is also important to incorporate in the system. Industrial customers should be projected individually month wise for the first years of the total five-year plan where consecutive years will project with the trend of the growth rate of gas consumption. The revenue projection is also important for the organization that provides the idea of required fund (Alvarez et al. 2012).
Customer rate structure – The data of customer rate structure is also important for the system because residential, commercial and industrial customers are getting the gas in different rate. The company is charging according to the consumption.
Supplier contract terms – CGC is a natural gas trading company that purchase gas from different pipeline company and sell to their customer. To provide uninterrupted supply to the customer it is important to include the supplier contract.
Storage field capacity – The data of storage field capacity is also important to match the input and output of the product.
Priority system – This data will help to balance the supply of gas to their customer in time of short supply (Moore et al. 2014).
Reference list
Alvarez, R.A., Pacala, S.W., Winebrake, J.J., Chameides, W.L. and Hamburg, S.P., 2012. Greater focus needed on methane leakage from natural gas infrastructure. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(17), pp.6435-6440.
Belkin, P., Nichol, J. and Woehrel, S., 2013. Europe’s energy security: Options and challenges to natural gas supply diversification. Congressional Research Service, pp.7-5700.
Lund, H., Werner, S., Wiltshire, R., Svendsen, S., Thorsen, J.E., Hvelplund, F. and Mathiesen, B.V., 2014. 4th Generation District Heating (4GDH): Integrating smart thermal grids into future sustainable energy systems.Energy, 68, pp.1-11.
Moore, C.W., Zielinska, B., Pétron, G. and Jackson, R.B., 2014. Air impacts of increased natural gas acquisition, processing, and use: a critical review.Environmental science & technology, 48(15), pp.8349-8359.
