OREANDA-NEWS. September 25, 2012.  Wayne, A GE Energy Business and a global innovator of fuel dispensers and technologies, is helping fuel retailers save money with automatic temperature compensation (ATC) technology. ATC measures the temperature of petroleum products during delivery and automatically computes the volume that would have been dispensed at 15°C, a reference temperature that is a long-standing international standard for the purchase and sale of petroleum products. Since temperature variations can cause fuel volumes to fluctuate, this computed “constant temperature” volume ensures that consumers receive the same amount of petrol energy per litre.

For example, 5 million litres of fuel delivered over a year at an average 15°C will shrink to 4,969,685 litres if stored in tanks at an average 10°C. For a fuel retailer, that means 30,315 litres of fuel were purchased yet are no longer available to be sold.

The ATC technology helps to save U.K. fuel retailers money when fuels are delivered at ambient temperatures and then stored at an average temperature below 15°C. It measures the fuel temperature when the fuel is metered to the customer and automatically adjusts the volume dispensed. The sale display shows the temperature-compensated price and volume for an easy-to-understand, seamless transaction, ensuring consistent fuel metering and more accurate inventory control.

Available as an option for both new and legacy Wayne dispensers, this innovative forecourt technology protects fuel retailers against potentially huge losses when temperature changes shrink the volume of fuel stocked.

“Existing installations of both Wayne Harmony™ and Wayne Opus™ 9000 fuel dispensers in the U.K. can be easily modified to incorporate the ATC technology,” says Soren Powell-Holse, sales manager U.K. & EIRE at Wayne. “Modifying existing dispensers helps fuel retailers avoid significant losses of stock and income.”

U.K. fueling sites that are taking advantage of ATC are having their legacy Wayne pumps retrofitted for the technology. For example, the Dudley-based Falcon Group, which owns 13 garages in the U.K., recently had Wayne ATC technology fitted to the Wayne Harmony™ dispensers, installed in 2004, at its Ward End site.

“Wayne surveyed our sites and advised our team that it was suitable for a retrofit,” according to Tariq Iqbal, Falcon Group owner. “Not only was the Wayne team able to complete the job on schedule within four days, they were able to help us keep the forecourt open the entire time while our dispensers were modified.”

Iqbal goes on to explain that Falcon Group’s fuel suppliers are currently making standard temperature accounting (STA) deliveries to their site and that retailing the fuel at ambient temperatures put the company at risk for temperature-related losses. “Most of our sites take ambient temperature deliveries,” said Iqbal. “But we will be looking at ATC retrofit units for those sites where STA deals are coming up.”