INNOVATION PROJECTS
Promigas and its affiliated companies executed 95 innovation projects in 2020, 69 of them aimed at making our operation safer and more efficient and flexible, 25 at diversifying the current portfolio of services and meeting and anticipating customer needs, and one other, which was a strategic project for producing green gases, in order to prepare us for a transition to a cleaner energies market.
Center for Energy and Gas Innovation management led nine of these projects, assisted with four others, and supervised 82. Center management were also in charge of structuring business concepts and cases for two strategic initiatives relating to the production of green and renewable gases.
These projects focused on reducing times by means of process automation, smart and prepaid metering, making customer care channels virtual, designing new digital channels for optimizing the loan placement process, expanding access channels, and the customer experience: display and scaling of innovative business models, implementation of strategies for making savings in operating and administrative areas, and making the current portfolio of services more flexible. All corporate personnel were involved in executing these projects, representing the equivalent of more than 68 persons working full time on innovation projects. We highlight two projects:
1. Linear natural gas transportation infrastructure monitoring platform. This project aims to transform the infrastructure monitoring processes used for gas transportation by implementing a mixed platform of digital, infrastructure and services solutions that will enable reliability monitoring mechanisms and undesired event management to be enhanced. By increasing our ability to anticipate and react to events in the almost 2,600 km of gas pipeline operated by the transportation companies, the results will make us a new benchmark in the sector.
2. Introduction of a new natural gas storage solution using low-pressure absorption in four applications in different segments of the natural gas transportation and distribution value chain in Colombia. We will implement pilot programs using this natural gas storage technology in new distribution services for the industrial sector. We are also constructing a new urban mobility value proposal and designing solutions to mitigate the carbon footprint generated today by our vents in both transportation and distribution. At a future date, using ANG, we will unveil energetically safer and more efficient solutions that will allow for a flexible operation for us and for our customers.
As far as activities to foster innovation are concerned, the companies executed 34 actions to reinforce the innovation culture, capture opportunities and develop skills, impacting 280 members of staff.
For the medium and long term, we have the following plans:
-
To continue developing and reinforcing digital platforms that will enable innovation to be managed in comparable settings.
-
To reinforce the digital supervision function, with a view to speeding up the detection of new solutions and approach methods in response to sudden changes in business dynamics.
-
To continue the product and services portfolio diversification process, in order to reduce the company’s financial exposure to national or global issues.
| |  
|
