The Source - Fall 2008 - (Page 27)

periodic inspections of pipelines for corrosion and other defects. A different approach to integrity management is necessary for gas distribution piping because most—if not all—of gas distribution pipeline is close to people all the time; the services goes directly into homes, businesses, and offices. For a variety of structural reasons, distribution gas pipeline can’t be internally inspected like transmission lines, so an intensive data research effort may be required to perform a risk analysis. Operators can benefit from an “outsider’s” perspective of risk analysis and program development. For example, when transmission clients took a customized approach to plan development and risk analysis, which at times meant using the expertise of third-party consulting firms, they fared much better in their audits than clients who took a “one-size-fits-all” approach. An industry study co-funded by APGA and the American Gas Association (AGA) found that while corrosion was the biggest threat to gas transmission pipeline, the major risk to gas distribution pipeline is excavation damage. That’s one of the reasons that a detailed, complex, one-size-fits-all rule was inappropriate to distribution systems—there are just too many differences between distribution and transmission pipelines. Know your infrastructure Knowledge of an operator’s infrastructure is basic to compliance with DIMP. It makes sense that a program developed for a bare steel system with a history of corrosion leaks will be different from a program for an all-plastic system. Certinaly, a good deal of physical and empirical data is regularly collected by most gas distribution operators to help them “know their infrastructure,” and DIMP provides framework for evaluating the data. Knowing your system and your infrastructure is more than just knowing its physical components, such as design, size, and material used in construction. It is also knowledge of what’s happening in and to the system—leak histories,  © Hafizov | Dreamstime.com THE SOURCE | FALL 2008 , VOL. 1, ISSUE 1 27

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of The Source - Fall 2008

The Source - Fall 2008 Contents First Person APGA Awards APGA Events Overview Up Next in THE SOURCE Grassroots Connections Climate Change Legislation Market Transparency: An Insider's View Legislative Outlook The Pipeline Marketing Matters Advertisers' Index At Last

The Source - Fall 2008

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