Gas and Pipeline Blog

Utilities collect a lot of data. This means utility field staff are spending a lot of time filling out forms.  Many companies today are undertaking efforts to convert paper forms to digital forms.  The basic justification for this effort is to eliminate the duplicate data entry of having an office person read, interpret, and recreate in the corporate enterprise systems what is captured in the field. But what about the field staff themselves, where is their benefit of digital transformation?  This blog series is about how to improve the productivity of field staff - how to automate data entry, leverage mobile device sensors, utilize intelligent software, and truly reduce the amount of time field staff spend filling out forms.

Esri’s Utility and Pipeline Data Model (UPDM) 2021 is available now. This release includes enhancements to keep up with changes in industry practice, regulatory requirements, and previous implementation feedback.

The natural gas industry’s drive to a lower or net zero carbon footprint is focused on actions that generally can be organized in three groups: (1) reducing methane emissions from operations, (2) reducing methane emissions from customer consumption, and (3) embracing new sources and uses of alternative lower carbon fuels.

Risk to the organization is typically summarized as a cost, with the unit of measure being monetary ($). This cost is much more than simply the expense to the utility to have the construction group replace the identified deficient section of pipe.  When a pipe section fails, it impacts the people and facilities near the location of failure.

Talking to someone about Tracking and Traceability is typically a discussion centered on a checklist of functional capabilities. Although this is a very important discussion to have, too often the discussion ends when the checklist of desired functionality ends. What is missing is the discussion of how much productivity can the organization gain by replacing legacy processes with a digital process.

In this blog article we will discuss how to configure and automate the data capture of the pressure test. Pressure test documentation has historically been a critical piece of information that too often is relegated to the bottom of the document pile, filed at the back of the cabinet, boxed, warehoused, and eventually misplaced never to be found again. If you are responsible for managing or determining a pressure zone’s maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP), then this frustrating reality most likely results in a palm slap to your forehead.

In this blog article, we will divulge how to configure and automate asset data capture.  This is a configuration of ArcGIS Field Maps which can be applied to the documentation of both plastic and steel assets across the gas pipe network.

Until recently field as-built data capture capabilities didn’t really meet the modern workflow needs of high-performing gas utilities. Recent technological breakthroughs such as low cost - high accuracy GPS antennas, mobile computing devices, and a new generation of mobile data collection applications makes field as-builting a cost effective possibility. These breakthoughs are reshaping how gas pipe construction information is gathered, populated, and managed.

Technological changes now offer the gas utility industry the opportunity for a paradigm shift in how it manages the locational accuracy of existing buried pipe systems. These new innovative solutions allow existing pipe to be mapped to sub-foot spatial accuracies without taking the pipe out of service.

Part 4 of the Modernizing Gas Leak Survey series, explaining how to improve to auditability of leak surveys by incorporating tracking of the field technician.