The continuous management and improvement of safety risks on gas pipelines and above ground installations (AGIs) requires development of wide ranging models and procedures. The type of event which affects pipelines and assets located on an AGI is of low frequency, but can have extremely high consequences, therefore it requires accurate models to make safety decisions and keep risks as low as reasonably practicable. Because of this challenge, the efficient development of models and procedures has historically been coordinated through joint ventures.
Benefits
The continuous management and improvement of safety risks on gas pipelines and above ground installations (AGIs) requires development of wide ranging models and procedures. The type of event which affects pipelines and assets located on an AGI is of low frequency, but can have extremely high consequences, therefore it requires accurate models to make safety decisions and keep risks as low as reasonably practicable. Because of this challenge, the efficient development of models and procedures has historically been coordinated through joint ventures.
Learnings
Outcomes
The project aims and objectives were met for the phases of the project within the financial year of 2022/23. Deliverables include the provision of updated tools, data and methodologies for undertaking risk assessments of National Gas and Cadent’s high pressure gas assets.
The effective collaboration between the project partners and other operators of similar assets worldwide continues to deliver significant leverage, and this has helped National Gas and Cadent Gas to benefit from sharing experience of the application of the tools and learning from incidents.
The deliverables for each element of work undertaken between April 2022 and March 2023 are listed below:
Hazard and Risk Assessment Methods for Gas Transmission Pipelines
1. An updated version of PIPESAFE (v2.28.3), incorporating improvements and incremental developments, as directed by the PIPESAFE JIP Steering Committee, accompanied by lists of reported problems with PIPESAFE and their resolution and updated lists of FAQs. The latest version of PIPESAFE now includes functionality to enable preliminary risk assessments of gas transmission pipelines transporting hydrogen to be carried out, whilst evidence is awaited from other innovation projects for validation of the models and methodology.
2. Annual report (PG/23/01) summarising activities and outputs from the PIPESAFE JIP in 2022, including the development of a refined methodology and supporting spreadsheet for risk assessment of pipeline/road crossings. A paper describing the pipeline/road crossing methodology and an example of its application was prepared by TC Energy and DNV and presented at the IPC2022 conference in Calgary in September 2022.
3. Report summarising new methodology developments identified and recommended for implementation in the next update of HAMM Pipelines, including the implementation of the new pipeline/road crossing methodology for UK pipeline applications.
Data for Failure Frequency Estimation for Use in Risk Analysis
1. Annual submissions for 2021 prepared for:
a. FFA detailed pipeline incident database
b. AGIFF detailed installation incident database
2. Annual report (FFA/23/01) on the development of the FFA database, summarising data collected to date and performing analysis of trends and examples of failure frequency calculations made possible with the database.
3. Annual report (AGIFF/23/01) on the development of the AGIFF database, summarising data collected to date and performing analysis of trends and examples of failure frequency calculations made possible with the database.
Hazard and Risk Assessment Methods for Above-Ground Installations
1. An updated version of ORDER (v2.25.0) incorporating improvements and incremental developments, as directed by the Steering Committee, accompanied by lists of reported problems with ORDER and their resolution and updated FAQs.
2. Annual report (OG/22/08) summarising activities and outputs from ORDER JIP in 2021-22. Highlights included completion of work on a new venting model combining the existing models for low momentum and high momentum releases and the preparation of a paper specifying Stage 1 of a programme of work to extend the application of ORDER to hydrogen, which has now commenced.
3. Report summarising new methodology developments identified and recommended for implementation in the next update of HAMM AGIs.
Ground Movement Threats to Pipelines
No deliverables specified and no funding requirements in 2022-23. The GMG JIP partners are considering whether further work is required following completion of the previous phase.
Effectiveness of Safety Measures
No deliverables specified and no funding requirements in 2022-23. The ESM JIP partners are considering the outputs from Phase 4 for application in their own companies before determining whether further work is required.
Hydrogen Transmission Safety
1. Phase 1 of the HTSG JIP project (with 12 partners including National Gas and Cadent) was completed, with publication of the final report on Phase 1 in December 2022. The results and recommendations from the Phase 1 report were used to define the detailed requirements for two hydrogen pipeline rupture experiments being undertaken in 2023 for the FutureGrid NIC project.
Report summarising new hydrogen developments relevant to Risk Assessment of Pipelines and AGIs, setting out the current status of methodologies for application of risk assessment techniques to high pressure pipelines and AGIs transporting hydrogen.
Lessons Learnt
The risk assessment tools and methodologies developed in this project provide important input to other Innovation projects addressing the possible introduction of hydrogen into the high pressure National and Local gas Transmission Systems (NTS and LTS) including the FutureGrid project led by National Gas. Communication between the projects could be improved to ensure dependencies and timings are understood.