Study on Energy Measurement Pricing Units and Reference Values of Natural Gas in China

In order to conduct localized research on the conversion of natural gas pricing methods, this study investigated energy measurement units in the literature based on the natural gas energy pricing model. Reference values were calculated for different methods, and the feasibility of dynamic adjustment of the reference values was explored. The study proposes natural gas energy measurement units and reference calorific values suitable for China. The results showed that using the reference calorific value as the unit of measurement and pricing for natural gas energy can better reflect the characteristics and value of natural gas itself. The reference calorific value can be assigned a fixed value or an adjusted value, and the amount of adjustment should be determined dynamically based on the stability of the natural gas periodic calorific value and its price. Using Qingfeng station and Nangang station of Ethylene branch pipeline as the gas source and downstream users as the object, pricing conversion results were calculated using 36.0 MJ/m³ as the fixed reference calorific value and average high calorific value as the adjusted reference calorific value. The research indicated that the selected reference calorific value and assignment method could support the pricing method conversion, and natural gas of different sources and qualities could be compared with each other. The flexibility of using the adjusted assignment for reference calorific values was more substantial than the fixed method.