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Safety is not just a commitment we talk about – it is our top priority, the foundation of our business and what guides all of our actions.
In 2018, we completed the four state-of-the-art training centers we announced in 2016 to enhance training for gas operations employees and first responders across our service territory.
We continue to invest in safety improvements, implement policies and procedures, develop technical training and guidelines for our employees, and leverage new tools and technology to improve our maps, records and infrastructure performance.
We are focused on establishing a framework for identifying and mitigating risk, continuously improving pipeline safety and integrity and safeguarding against over-pressurization. We continue to evaluate every opportunity to engineer increased safety measures in our gas delivery systems, including the accelerated implementation of a Safety Management System (SMS). Our SMS is aligned with the framework developed for pipeline operators by the American Petroleum Institute. This framework helps operators proactively identify and mitigate risk, communicate with stakeholders, ensure effective operation of key processes, promote a learning environment and continuously improve pipeline safety and integrity.
At its core, SMS is an advanced, comprehensive approach to safety that enhances how we predict and mitigate risks.
We initially launched SMS in Indiana and Virginia, and are now accelerating implementation across the rest of the company. Our initial progress resulted in the development of our SMS policy, tools and processes including a risk register to capture and prioritize risks, a performance improvement process that identifies the risk and tracks it to closure, and foundational employee training.
We will continue to build a strong safety culture that encourages transparency and two-way communication between leaders and employees, and promotes safety leadership and individual accountability at all levels in the organization.
Low-pressure system enhancements
Immediately following the events in Merrimack Valley, we conducted a field survey of our low-pressure regulator systems to identify available options to enhance the safe, reliable operation of these systems. We also conducted an engineering design review to determine how best to install additional over-pressure protection systems, monitoring and enhanced facility protection.
We used the information we gathered to add new details to our electronic mapping system that front-line and engineering employees can easily access and leverage to enhance safe operations.
We have committed to invest an initial estimate of $150 million to install automatic shut-off devices to protect against over-pressurization on low-pressure systems across our operating area.
Automatic shut-off devices provide an additional level of control and protection, operating like circuit-breakers at our regulator stations. When the device senses an operating pressure that is too high or too low, it immediately shuts down gas to the system, regardless of the cause.
Our low-pressure distribution systems — containing approximately 2,000 regulators across our operating area – will have automatic shut-off devices in place to enhance customer safety.
We have committed to increasing remote monitoring capabilities on our low-pressure systems, leveraging technology that will be installed throughout 2019. Building on existing monitoring capabilities, these will allow us to see more comprehensive details on the current health and status of our systems as well as how those systems perform throughout the year.
We have further enhanced our damage prevention practices around low-pressure regulator stations, including field inspection and monitoring of excavators working for third parties. These enhanced work practices were implemented at the end of 2018 across all of our states and help to reduce the risk of potential facility damage.
Throughout 2019 and into the future, we will continue enhancing safety measures and seeking to reduce potential risks across all our low-pressure systems.
