The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
has developed a safety program and database that can be used by
pipeline and LNG operators to help monitor natural gas facilities.
The program concentrates on Integrity Management,
for gas distribution and gas transmission pipelines,
operation maintenance emergency, control management,
public awareness, and damage prevention.
Natural gas utilities have also been very progressive.
The natural gas industry and its trade association,
the American Gas Association have supported films
as efforts and research into monitoring tools.
New York Search is
a non-profit collaborative research development and demonstration organization.
Its members voluntarily participate in projects and programs to target
RD & D areas that directly address their unique challenges and opportunities.
NYSEARCH focuses on Improved installation,
maintenance and repair of natural gas quality.
They also look at pipe location and integrity,
direct and remote assessments,
new materials, damage prevention and leak detection.
I'd like to now show you a number of technologies that Natural Gas Utilities and
NYSEARCH have actually developed to
address some of the big problems in the natural gas industry.
For example, Con Ed and National Fuel have installed
NYSEARCH's real time corrosion monitoring system on their natural gas lines.
This monitoring system is a flexible sensor tape
that contains micro linear resistance corrosion centers,
on a live steel transmission Yes Maine.
It monitors any evidence of corrosion in real time.
Natural Gas Utilities also started using drones to inspect facilities and detect methane.
Baltimore Gas and Electric and Uming Gas,
routinely use drones to inspect their remote facilities and their distribution systems.
Last but not least,
let's take a look at
the tetherless robotic inspection system
developed by Pipetel through the NYSEARCH program.
Typically, natural gas pipelines and distribution lines are
inspected using a pipeline inspection gadget called a PIG.
However, many distribution lines are not pigable,
because they contain many valves which
prevent the device from traveling through the pipe.
Pipetel's tetherless robotic inspection system is quite different,
and is very flexible.
It also comes in a variety of sizes so it
can inspect even the smallest distribution line,
and take pictures, find measurements,
detect corrosion and send the operator a visual reading to see where problems are.