What happens if you can’t monitor gas networks in real time? 

Bogotá-based Reseggas has supplied gas network equipment since 1997.

It imports and distributes components such as:

• Pressure regulators
• Filters
• Solenoid valves
• Gas detectors

Its customers, Colombian gas utilities, run pipeline networks across vast distances.

A glitch in gas supply isn’t an option. These companies continuously monitor their networks to avoid service interruptions, gas leaks, and safety risks.

These issues, in turn, can drive up reactive maintenance costs and damage revenue.

Monitoring and control equipment generally needs a continuous, reliable electricity supply.

However, in remote locations, the power grid is limited or absent, and the usual workarounds are far from perfect:

• Battery-only systems run out quickly if they send data every few minutes, so they often report only once a day (during which a lot can happen). 
• Solar panels without constant vigilance can be stolen.

Without frequent readings, utilities lose their grip on real-time data collection, which they need to anticipate issues before they become critical.

The energy the network needs is inside the pipes

Advanced Microturbines found a source of electricity hiding in the gas itself: pressure.

Founded in 2013 in Genoa as a spin-off of the Italian Institute of Technology, the startup designs microturbines that capture energy otherwise wasted and turn it into electricity.

Here is how it works.

Gas travels through transport pipelines at high pressure, and operators must reduce that pressure before it reaches homes and businesses.

Every time the pressure drops, it releases energy.

The startup’s patented, highly miniaturised microturbine is installed in a pressurised distribution pipeline and uses that existing pressure drop to spin a tiny turbine coupled to an electrical generator.

The result is up to 150 W of electricity (roughly what a desktop computer uses while it’s running).

This electricity is produced off-grid, without burning fuel and without creating direct emissions.

Moreover, that power feeds IoT equipment that monitors and controls the pipeline.

What does this mean? If pressure drifts, operators see it immediately and can correct it remotely, an approach known as active pressure management.

Over time, the same data supports predictive maintenance: you repair before a part fails rather than after.

For gas utilities, the benefits follow directly:

• Less leakage and lower reactive repair costs
• More reliable service for households and industrial users
• Fewer trips to distant or hazardous sites, as monitoring moves to a central control centre.

The partners have already agreed to a pilot with Vanti, a Colombian natural gas distributor, to prove the microturbine in a live network.

From one pilot to a market-entry plan for Colombia

A working microturbine is only half of the story.

To turn a single pilot into a business, the partners also needed to know where to sell, how to set up locally and how to fund the next steps.

The EU-LAC Digital Accelerator supported them with two acceleration services.

• Service n°1: International growth & Soft landing

Through this service, the partners analysed opportunities in Colombia and defined an internationalisation and soft-landing plan.

This is nothing less than a step-by-step outline to set up and start selling in a new country. 

The service also identified key stakeholders to approach (such as the gas utilities that could follow Vanti) and supported the first implementation actions, including who installs, maintains and repairs the microturbines once they are in Colombian pipelines.

• Service n°2: Access to funding

Through this service, the partners identified grants, loans and equity instruments relevant to them in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. 

The outcome is a Multilateral Funding Plan listing the key funds, contacts and actions, so that a successful pilot leads to commercial deployment rather than a funding gap.

A live pilot today, a regional rollout tomorrow

🔥 RESEGGAS (Corporate)	⚡ ADVANCED MICROTURBINES (Startup)
A validated pilot with Vanti, proving on-site power for real-time network monitoring. A sales strategy for Colombia, opening the way to more gas utilities and a local maintenance service	A microturbine pilot completed, tested, and refined based on field performance.  Colombia as a base to expand into neighbouring Latin American markets