One of the lasting lessons to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is a better appreciation of the unseen. Whether it’s the courage and sacrifice of health care workers or the dedication of the people working to keep shelves stocked and food delivered, the concept of “front lines” has broadened. While those in the natural gas industry might not have been singled out for attention like some others, they clearly fall into the same category.
Every day, whether during the height of the pandemic or in the days before or since, natural gas utilities have continued to do what they always do: provide an essential, life-supporting resource in a safe, efficient, cost-effective and customer-focused way. Though it may not always be recognized by the general public, their commitment to safety and customer satisfaction can be witnessed at all levels, from project planning down to individual encounters in the field.
Simply put, the natural gas industry is constantly thinking about operations and safety, equally looking after its own, its customers, the environment and its role in the uninterrupted progress of daily life.
Smart procedures are the hallmark of any successful business, and in an industry as complex as natural gas, adherence to those procedures is vital. However, even the best procedures can’t account for every possibility, which is why SEMCO ENERGY Gas Company has placed a high value on creating a culture that empowers workers to go the extra mile.
For example, it was procedure that routed a call about a potential gas leak in Holland, Michigan, from SEMCO’s emergency dispatch center to gas distribution mechanics Doug Schrotenboer and Darryn Boetsma. And it was procedure that allowed them to find and then fix a small, nonhazardous leak at the address given by the caller, a passing motorist. If the story had ended there, with the two workers merely checking the boxes they were expected to check, it might have had a drastically different outcome.
But Schrotenboer and Boetsma didn’t just fix the leak and move on. For Schrotenboer, who had 43 years of experience, the facts just didn’t seem to add up to a routine repair. On one hand, yes—they had found a leak where they expected to find it. But on the other hand, the wind was out of the east that day, and the call had been made from upwind, not downwind. So, even though they had successfully completed the job assigned to them, they decided to investigate the houses on the opposite side of the road. There, they noticed a furnace running, and when Boetsma—a less-experienced worker training with Schrotenboer—checked the vent, initial reads of the exhaust being pushed outside were alarming: above 2,000 parts per million carbon monoxide and 6% natural gas.
Not only had they discovered the real source of the reported leak, but they had also uncovered a hazardous situation for the resident and her two small dogs.
After receiving permission to check inside the house, the gravity of the situation became clear: Schrotenboer’s combustible gas indicator registered 10 PPM CO at the door—but the indicator climbed to 200 near the utility room, a dangerous level for anyone inside. Once everyone was safely outdoors, Schrotenboer noticed the resident’s complexion was a greyish white, so he notified his supervisor and requested a 911 call. His concerns proved well founded: She was transported to a nearby hospital and treated for CO poisoning, while her dogs were evaluated at a local veterinarian’s office.
With both the resident and her pets receiving medical attention, the story also could have ended here, but there was still the question of the broken furnace. Natural gas service would have to be suspended until the furnace could be replaced, and Schrotenboer knew from talking with the resident that she had no family in the area to stay with while her HVAC contractor did the work. So, he called his supervisor again, and together with the first responders, they developed a plan to assist her housing situation.
A few days later, when Schrotenboer and Boetsma were dispatched to reestablish service after the furnace was installed, it was an emotional reunion, with everyone understanding that the outcome could have been different had Schrotenboer not followed his instinct and had everyone involved not been willing to go the extra mile to make sure the customer was not only safe, but also looked after.
“I was glad to be training with Doug that day,” Boetsma said. “It taught me the importance of taking the extra step to ensure the community is safe.”
“We’re proud of how Doug and Darryn handled this incident,” said Marc Simone, SEMCO’s vice president–operations. “It shows the impact our employees have in keeping our customers safe in the communities where we are privileged to operate.”
That attention to safety doesn’t come by chance—it’s engrained in SEMCO’s culture. SEMCO received a 2020 Safety Achievement Award for Employee Safety from the American Gas Association for achieving the lowest incident rate for the number of days away from work, restricted or transferred (DART) among companies of its size and type.
Putting safety first doesn’t only play out in the field; it’s equally important at the planning level. That’s why in the winter of 2020–21, National Grid began engaging artificial intelligence to identify unseen risks and better prevent accidents. The technology, provided by incident-prevention company Urbint, harnesses the power of data and AI to stay ahead of safety incidents, many of which might not be anticipated.
“We have thousands of people performing critical infrastructure work in the field for our communities, and nothing is more important to us than sending them safely home at the end of every day,” said Rudolph Wynter, president of National Grid New York. “Using AI to protect workers is a game-changer for us, and we are excited to work with Urbint and to leverage Urbint Lens for Worker Safety to continuously improve field work safety during construction operations.”
Urbint touts the technology utilizes safety science and models potential risks to workers to assess safety before workers reach the field. According to Urbint, this ability to proactively analyze risk allows supervisors to evaluate daily threats and anticipate issues before any workers are put in jeopardy, and then act to address those threats in targeted, proactive ways rather than reactive ones, typically through on-site interventions or with education and training.
The software also provides supervisors a single view of safety risks across multiple job sites by connecting data on work sites, schedules, historical incidents and environmental conditions. Urbint claims this gives field operators the ability to analyze millions of data points in order to pinpoint the highest-risk tasks being performed on a given day, so they can take targeted actions to create a safer work environment for their employees.
Multiply that ability across dozens or hundreds of worksites and thousands of workers, and Urbint believes the value becomes clear. Additionally, as a single system of record, Urbint asserts the technology also simplifies workflows and is invaluable when it comes time for audits.
The benefits of keeping ahead of risk can’t be overstated. “This technology is very exciting,” said Walter Fromm, National Grid vice president of capital delivery, gas. “It has the potential to pull all of this information into one place so we can do some analytics. That way, a worker or a superintendent out in the field can see before they start what is happening—and take action.”
Note: After National Grid’s first deployment of Urbint technology, the company’s unregulated corporate investment and innovation arm, National Grid Partners, made an investment in Urbint.
Providing a reliable source of energy in a safe, effective manner is the mantra for utility infrastructure repair and replacement work. While much of that work is straightforward, some projects are far more complex. That critical work underground is where field workers demonstrate all of their skill, experience and commitment to safety.
PG&E experienced this recently when increased demand and other factors created a need for a larger-diameter pipe that could maintain higher gas throughput to the communities and businesses in Turlock, Patterson and Modesto in Northern California. But the utility knew it had a monumental task in front of it: Much of that pipe ran underneath the San Joaquin River.
Not only would the 12-inch pipe installed in the 1970s need to be replaced with 7,200 feet of 24-inch-diameter, high-capacity transmission pipe, but that pipe was located 70 feet below the riverbed.
The planning took nearly five years and incorporated elements that would be easy to redesign to accommodate the reality of different features once work actually began. Although the original project used traditional trenching, engineers elected to use horizontal directional drilling, or HDD, for the replacement, a procedure that required four cranes, two side booms and two drill rigs straddling both sides of the river.
PG&E had used this technology for smaller projects, but its use here was the largest ever undertaken by the utility—and possibly the largest ever done in the state of California.
“Horizontal directional drilling allows us to install the pipe completely without affecting the flow or potentially damaging the waterway by causing any contaminants to enter the river or wash downstream,” said Construction Manager Chris Williams. “It was the safest method to protect the waterway and some of the sensitive areas we had over there.”
Installing more than 800,000 pounds of steel pipe 70 feet under a river is a tremendous responsibility, both ecologically and from a continuity-of-service standpoint. Beyond that, a project of that scope requires thoughtful coordination of multiple teams to ensure everyone involved is as safe as can be throughout the entire process.
Because of the extreme length, the project required what’s called an intersecting bore—two drills starting at opposite sides of the river and meeting in the middle—a process that demands precision and a significant amount of planning.
That level of detail and care extended beyond the installation itself. Once the pipe underwent hydrostatic pressure testing, where the pipe was filled with water and pressurized to a much higher level than it would be with natural gas, it was monitored for approximately eight hours before the project was considered complete. The line returned to service in March without major incident and with no interruption to customers.
For PG&E and many other utilities, a job well done is ensuring that every project or call is handled correctly and safely—and “at the end of the day, nobody really ever knew we were there,” Williams said. “We want to make sure that when we’re walking away, it’s as safe as it can be.”
“It’s just rewarding knowing that the people in these communities will have hot water [and other essential needs] because our gas will be there for them,” added Lead Inspector Charles Boutwell. “It’s the simple things in life that mean the most.”
For a video of PG&E’s historic San Joaquin River project, visit: players.brightcove.net/1143621169001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6242803399001