Business & Tech

PG&E Says It Followed Rules With Setting Gas Pressure Limit on Line 132

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. on Tuesday released new details about its record-keeping practices regarding pressure tests of its gas transmission pipelines in a 154-page report to the CPUC.

PG&E is defending its practices with setting the gas pressure limit on Line 132 and says it followed state and federal regulations that established rules for pipeline operators to set the gas pressures on their lines, according to a filing submitted today by the utility about its pipeline records.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. laid out its explanation in the 154-page filing to the California Public Utilities Commission, prompted by an in January to provide records identifying all of its gas transmission lines that haven't undergone testing for safe operating pressures.

The CPUC subsequently ordered the utility to produce the records for its 1,805 miles of gas transmission pipelines in densely populated areas throughout the state as part of a larger probe of potential safety issues after state officials ordered a 20 percent pressure reduction on transmission lines that were operating over maximum allowable pressure levels. PG&E had until today to produce the results.

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As part of its ongoing investigation of the Sept. 9 gas pipeline explosion in the Crestmoor neighborhood, the NTSB found that—which PG&E wasn’t aware of—and PG&E said it couldn’t find records for about one-third of its gas transmission lines, raising widespread concerns about the utility’s record-keeping practices.

In the filing (see attached) issued today, PG&E said it still has only found about 90 percent of its records for pressure tests and absolved itself of any wrongdoing in setting the maximum operating pressure for Line 132 before it ruptured near Earl Avenue and Glenview Drive, leaving eight people dead and 38 homes destroyed.

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“Although the January 3, 2011 urgent safety recommendation of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) called on PG&E to review its records and validate the MAOP of its gas transmission lines,” PG&E said in the filing, “nothing in the NTSB’s public reports to date suggests that the MAOP of the segment of Line 132 that ruptured was not properly established under Section 619(c).”

Section 619(c) (see attached) is a federal law that says if a gas transmission line was installed before 1970, as was the case with Line 132, then a pipeline operator can rely on historical operating pressure to establish a maximum allowable operating pressure.

According to PG&E, the records provided include information about pressure tests or historical operating pressure on pipeline segments installed before 1970.

About 1.25 million records were reviewed, scanned and analyzed since the CPUC ordered the utility to produce its records, the utility said. The records submitted today by the utility were assembled by hundreds of PG&E employees and contractors who sometimes worked in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, according to PG&E.

However, pressure test records for the pipeline segment involved in the Crestmoor disaster have not yet been identified, and PG&E said it is continuing its search for them.

"While we have made good progress, we are not satisfied with these results and will continue to search for and review our files for the remaining pressure test records and provide the Commission with regular updates on our efforts," PG&E said.

The utility also submitted an inspection and field test plan that it said "will raise the bar on standards industrywide." The plan calls for a combination of in-line inspections as well as pressure testing and pipeline replacement on about 150 miles of pipeline that PG&E said had records resembling those of the failed Line 132 segment. Eight other sections of Line 132 will be included in those tests, and four sections of Line 101—another Peninsula pipeline—will be tested.

PG&E President Chris Johns said the utility believes that its "aggressive plan" for inspections and testing outlined in today's filing is "the right step toward enhancing public safety across our service area."

Bay City News Service contributed to this story.


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