Electric generation’s growing appetite for natural gas ispropelling rapid changes in the gas industry’s traditional businesspractices that will pose greater challenges to pipeline safety,says the chairman of the INGAA Pipeline Safety Task Force.

“Now it’s the growth in this particular market segment that isgoing to dramatically impact how interstate pipelines are going tobe used and how capacity additions will be made in the future,”said Fred Fowler, also head of Duke Energy’s transmission group, atthe INGAA Foundation’s third annual North American Pipeline SafetySummit in Washington D.C. last Wednesday

At Duke Energy, for example, the company is seeing “the need forhigher pressure requirements at the end of the [pipeline] system”to feed electric generation plants, which potentially raises newsafety concerns. “We’re also seeing much higher swings as thosegeneration [plants] trip on and off multiple times over the [courseof a] day. We’re seeing storage systems that are being dispatchedon an economic basis year-round…..rather than the old traditionalapproach of injection in storage over the summer period to meet thehigh demand in heating load for the following winter.” Also, hesaid the bulk of the electric load is a summer peak, which meanspipelines are going to have a lot more throughput during thetraditional off-peak period for gas.

“The good news is [these] anticipated changes in that growththroughput opens up a lot of opportunities for efficiency, and thatwill drive lower costs for pipelines and customers alike,” Fowlersaid. On the flip side, however, “there’s obviously going to bemore public pressure to regulate our industry because of [greater]environmental, safety concerns” posed by year-round demand fornatural gas.

The public’s interest in natural gas pipelines is”unprecedented” largely due to the Internet, which allowslandowners to better organize, he noted. Although gas pipelines arethe “safest means” of transportation, Fowler reminded pipelineexecutives at the INGAA summit that there is no “silver bullet”when it comes to pipeline safety.

While interstate natural gas pipelines last week suffered amajor setback in the Senate on safety legislation, a key pipelinesafety official with the Department of Transportation (DOT)commended gas pipes for the advances they have made in protectingthe public and environment from the potential safety threats posedby their systems. But, she noted, there’s much more to do.

“…I’m here to tell you that we’re not there yet,” said KelleyCoyner, administrator for DOT’s Research and Special ProgramsAdministration (RSPA) at the summit. The RSPA oversees the Officeof Pipeline Safety (OPS).

“Before us is the challenge of finishing our work. We must takeall the information operators have about risks to natural gaspipelines and address them comprehensively. We must also continueto improve our communication with the public and with state andlocal officials about what those risks are and how they’re beingaddressed,” she told a crowd of gas pipeline executives.

“Our best opportunity to do both effectively is to ensure thatCongress passes comprehensive, balanced, common sense pipelinesafety legislation this year. Right now you have the opportunity topass the most comprehensive pipeline safety legislation in ournation’s history, and we must seize that opportunity.” A day afterCoyner spoke the Senate Commerce Committee voted out a pipelinesafety bill that gas pipelines contend was far from “balanced” (seerelated story this issue).

In the wake of the explosion of a Texas Eastern Transmissionline in New Jersey in 1994, DOT learned that its inspections andenforcement actions weren’t enough to guarantee safety, she said.”Together, we have made much progress” since then. “Unfortunately,we were reminded by tragedy [in June 1999} that we need to continuethose efforts.” Coyner, of course, was referring to the explosionalong the system of Olympic Pipe Line, a products pipeline, thatkilled three last year in Bellingham, WA.

“That catastrophic event underlined the importance ofcomprehensive integrity management, of public communication, ofdamage prevention and research.” DOT earlier this month said itwould impose a $3.05 million civil penalty against the productspipeline – the largest ever proposed for a pipeline operator.”…[W]hat we cited them for is instructive to all of us,” Coynersaid, enumerating the violations: