Natural gas is a critical energy resource that utilities must deliver to customers through safe and secure pipelines. A primary threat to gas infrastructure is encroachment by nonutility companies that cause accidental damage when excavating. A monitoring technology to notify gas utilities about activity in their pipeline rights-of-way would benefit utilities and the public by increasing safety and reducing system damage. The monitoring technology must be cost-effective and able to retrofit to existing infrastructure.
Gas Technology Institute has strong research and development experience in right-of-way monitoring. The two technologies pursued extensively include: 1) permanent attachment of vibration and other sensors at intervals along the gas pipeline (tracking what is underground) and 2) tracking the location of excavation equipment relative to the pipeline (tracking what is aboveground). The current advances in wireless, mobile, and low-power technologies allow use of these two solutions at an affordable cost.
This project installed a monitoring and notification system on an active natural gas pipeline, demonstrated the operation of the system in a remote area using solar power and wireless data collection, and monitored the results. The research team developed data records for several months of pipeline and surrounding environment conditions.
