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 2024/25. 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 2024 and March 2025 are listed below:
Hazard and Risk Assessment Methods for Gas Transmission Pipelines
1. An updated version of PIPESAFE (v3.0.0), 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.
2. Annual report (PG/25/01) summarising activities and outputs from the PIPESAFE JIP in 2024, including progress with the extension of the PIPESAFE risk assessment package for application to hydrogen including risks from overpressures. A paper describing the methodology developed for risk assessment of pipeline/rail crossings (e.g. HS2) was published at the IChemE Hazards conference in 2024.
3. Report summarising new methodology developments identified and recommended for implementation in the next update of HAMM Pipelines, including a description of the updates to RiskScreen.
Data for Failure Frequency Estimation for Use in Risk Analysis
1. Annual submissions for 2023 prepared for:
a. FFA detailed pipeline incident database
b. AGIFF detailed installation incident database
2. Annual report (FFA/25/01) providing an overview of progress with the FFA database and an updated technical report (FFA/25/03) including analysis of trends and examples of failure frequency calculations made possible with the database (covering the period 2012- 2021).
3. Annual report (AGIFF/25/01) providing an overview of progress with the AGIFF database and an updated technical report (AGIFF/24/04) including analysis of trends and examples of failure frequency calculations made possible with the database (covering the period 2012- 2021).
Hazard and Risk Assessment Methods for Above-Ground Installations
1. An updated version of ORDER (v2.26.1) 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. ORDER now includes an enhanced version of the VEX explosion model.
2. Annual report (OG/25/01) summarising activities and outputs from ORDER JIP in 2023-24. Highlights included significant progress with the programme of work to extend the application of ORDER to hydrogen and hydrogen/natural gas blends.
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 2024-25. The project has been concluded, and no further work is planned.
Effectiveness of Safety Measures
No deliverables specified and no funding requirements in 2024-25. A paper describing the development of the final version of the fault tree in ESM Phase 4, to provide a means of assessing the effectiveness of “non-physical measures” such as surveillance, was presented and published at the IChemE Hazards conference in 2024. The project has now been concluded, and no further work is planned.
Hydrogen Transmission Safety
Report summarising new hydrogen developments relevant to Risk Assessment of Pipelines and AGIs, including a review of the feasibility of developing a risk-based screening approach to assessment of existing natural gas transmission pipelines for possible conversion to hydrogen service.
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 and the HyNet project led by Cadent. Communication between the projects could be improved to ensure dependencies and timings are understood.
