NW Natural debuts safety app
PORTLAND—Gas utilities, pipeline companies and other energy and communication businesses have worked hard to make calling 811 an automatic first step taken before any digging project.
Now, one Northwestern gas utility has developed a free 811 phone app, making that step even easier for customers.
NW Natural launched its safety app this past spring, just ahead of April’s National Safe Digging Month. The app can be used to report potential natural gas odors anytime—24/7—and to directly call 811 or submit an online request to schedule a locate before digging. The app also provides safety news, updates and information pertaining to the utility.
The NW Natural safety app is available on both Apple and Android phones.
“We were excited to offer a new safety tool to help our customers and contractors call 811 to request a locate or report a natural gas odor,” Cory Beck, NW Natural’s senior manager of communications and user experience, told American Gas. In addition, the app’s ease and availability complement another safety program promoted by NW Natural: “Smell. Go. Let us Know.®”
Third-party dig-ins are the most common cause of damages to natural gas pipelines. NW Natural handled approximately 700 unintentional damages in 2017—nearly two per day. Nationally, the Common Ground Alliance, a trade group focused on digging and excavation safety, estimates that underground line damage cost the United States $1.5 billion in direct damages in 2016, not including the costs for lost power, lost service, or blocked roads or bridges.
About half of NW Natural’s customers interact digitally with the company, and since its release, the app has been downloaded nearly 3,000 times within the utility’s service areas in Oregon and Washington. The utility continues to promote the app through advertising at community events and directly to contractors. “We expect the number of downloads to grow,” Beck said.
To date, the app has relayed more than 500 odor calls, along with more than 500 locate requests in Oregon and Washington.
But the utility is not evaluating the success of the app just from a quantitative review, said Daphne Mathew, a public information officer with NW Natural. The app is really just one more step in NW Natural’s continual effort to improve safety and reduce pipeline damage, she said.
“If we can make the process easier so that more customers request a locate or report an odor, we know the safety app is doing its job,” Mathew said.