American Gas - August/September 2014 - (Page 34)
BURNER
TIPS
For one utility, earning dual certifications helped
focus the company on building a safety culture in the
wake of a tragic accident BY NICK STAVROPOULOS
SAFETY:
ACHIEVING THE GOLD STANDARD
F
ollowing the tragic pipeline
accident in San Bruno, Calif.,
four years ago, we at Pacific
Gas and Electric Co. charted a
new course that many considered, and still consider,
impossible. Our mandate was
clear: not only did we have to do everything we could to prevent a similar
tragedy from ever happening again, we
also had to take the lessons from what led
up to that terrible day to become the best
gas utility in the country. Naturally, some
improvements will take several more years
to accomplish, but we recently reached
a significant milestone in our progress:
receiving two international certifications
in the world-class management of our gas
system assets.
In May, PG&E earned two difficultto-achieve international certifications, the
result of the company's commitment to
transforming our gas operations and building a strong safety culture. In fact, we are
the first utility in the United States and one
of only a few in the world to hold both the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO 55001) and Publicly Available
Specification (PAS 55-1) certifications.
As we endeavor to help the families
and community of San Bruno rebuild and
heal, we are simultaneously transforming our culture and the way we work.
Early on we knew that we had to take
an aggressive approach to upgrading
our operations and the way we manage
our assets. All told, our pipeline system
spans 70,000 square miles and serves 15
million Californians-about one in every
20 Americans-and covers some of the
34
AMERICAN GAS AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014
country's most challenging and varied
terrain. PG&E owns and operates one
of the largest natural gas systems in the
United States-an integrated transportation, storage, and distribution system that
consists of approximately 80,000 miles
of pipelines, various storage facilities, and
eight natural gas compressor stations.
TIPS FOR COMPANIES
CONSIDERING
CERTIFICATION
ISO 55001 and PAS 55-1 standards
have a set list of criteria but do not
prescribe how to go about achieving
certification. Every company will have to
map out its own work plan and assign
an appropriate timeline. Here are things
to consider based on PG&E's experience
which, from start to finish, was a two-anda-half year process.
4 Treat the process like its own program
and staff it with a strong team.
4 Set a realistic timeline, working back
from when you will be audited.
4 Engage your employees throughout
your organization early and often
throughout the certification application
process.
4 Once certified, develop a plan to
ensure you maintain it.
Pursuing ISO 55001 and PAS 55-1
certification offered us a proven framework used in different industries around
the world to optimize the planning and
execution of work. Lloyd's Register, a
respected independent auditing firm,
rigorously examined all areas of our gas asset management system-everything from
safety processes to information management to emergency response procedures
and risk assessment-and determined our
standards to be best-in-class.
To begin the process, we mapped out a
timeline with an incredibly ambitious goal
of becoming certified in less than three
years. While a few said it wasn't possible,
we had every confidence in our team. First,
our Gas Operations team adopted the
underlying requirements of the PAS 55-1
standard as the foundation of PG&E's
safety and asset-management system. Key
to our success was treating the certification
process as its own stand-alone program
and staffing it appropriately. To move from
Point A to Point B, every Gas employee
had to understand how they fit into the vision of PG&E's becoming the safest, most
reliable utility in the country. At the core,
achieving certification meant that employees must value the role they play in building a safety-first culture and improving our
operations. This wasn't about winning a
race or hanging a certificate on our office
walls. This was about creating wholesale
change in the way we operate.
Continuous improvement is at the
heart of a safety culture, and PG&E encourages all employees to openly raise issues or concerns and submit them through
the Corrective Action Program, launched
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American Gas - August/September 2014
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