What the Public Wants to Know – What’s the Delay with the Needed Replacement of Old Pipe Pipeline Safety Trust 2014 Annual Meeting N. Jonathan Peress Natural Gas Air Policy Director
Distribution Main by Material PHMSA 2011 Data
At recent rates (2011), when will cast iron pipe be completely replaced? State Year Alabama 2040 Connecticut 2080 Michigan 2040 Missouri 2059 New Jersey 2035 New York 2090 Pennsylvania 2111 State Reported to NAPSR in 2011
At the current rate of replacement, we are losing the battle Age Distribution of Infrastructure
More Strategic, and Cost Effective Tactics • Better tools to prioritize replacement are being used and developed – Equipment to better assess and monitor pipes and the environment (e.g., smart pigs); – Better tools to locate and quantify leaks (e.g., EDF/CSU/Google). • Predictive tools that facilitate greater proactivity, leak avoidance and replacement planning – Determining rate of degradation of pipe segments (especially after an initial repair), and the expected rate of increase in emissions • Result – Better planning and cost effective response; Share the data
Local Distribution Methane Mapping Boston Indianapolis From its early results, EDF is finding leaks that the local utilities had not. A few have been significant enough that they were immediately repaired. edf.org/climate/methanemaps
Replacement and Leaks Performance Standards • Service quality reporting should entail leaks per mile (for type of pipe), and gage cost effectiveness • Incentive based ratemaking – considering predictive data with replacement targets • LUAF – performance standards for LUAF considering replacement targets – Refine the correlation between leaks and LUAF
People on the Ground Find Most Leaks Shaw, etal. 2012
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