Integrity Management
Using in-house applications and expertise, New Century’s experienced pipeline and GIS team can help natural gas, hazardous liquid transmission, and gathering line operators meet integrity management program requirements specified in 49 CFR Part 192 and Part 195 by the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration (PHMSA), through the Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS). A variety of software and services can contribute to designing a successful Integrity Management Plan.
Integrity management services include:
Hazardous liquid transmission pipeline HCA analysis – Using our Spill Impact Analyst application to simulate time-based overland transport and channel-based transport, we can provide operators with an accurate and defensible determination of segments of their pipelines that could effect a High Consequence Area (HCA) per 49 CFR Part 195.452.
Natural gas transmission pipeline HCA analysis – To determine which segments of an operator’s transmission pipeline system are covered by DOT regulations, operators must identify High Consequence Areas (HCA). Using our Gas HCA Analyst application which supports both method (1) or (2) per 49 CFR 192.903, our experienced technicians determine HCAs to help operators comply with regulations.
Natural gas transmission pipeline Class Location analysis – New Century's team of experienced GIS professionals along with our powerful Gas HCA Analyst application helps operators calculate DOT Class Locations as defined in 49 CFR 192.5. Using the pipeline centerline, adjacent structure and DOT class features, the application’s "sliding mile" algorithm accurately calculates Class Locations, providing results in GIS, tabular or alignment sheet formats.
Pipeline risk assessment – Operators must use risk assessments to prioritize covered segments, and evaluate the merits of additional preventative and mitigative measures. Using our Spatial Risk Analyst application, our experienced team of professionals develops a defensible relative or absolute risk model, quantifies threats and consequences along the pipeline, integrates spatial and other data, performs the risk assessment, and then provides the operator with results in the form of charts, tables and/or risk alignment sheets. We can also assist in developing the data necessary to maintain your risk management program.
Data integration – DOT regulations require operators to include data integration in identification of threats to each covered pipeline segment. This includes all available information about the integrity of the entire pipeline and the consequences of failure. New Century can provide the wide range of data integration services needed to help operators identify potential pipeline threats. Data integration may include close interval survey (CIS) data, one-call data, depth of cover, soil type, land use, third-party activity, ground-based GPS, physical inspections, SCADA, corrosion monitoring, and many other data elements.
We also provide in-line inspection (ILI) data alignment and integration services to accept ILI data from any smart pig vendor and integrate it with existing pipeline data. The results are a GIS populated with ILI data and/or ILI alignment sheets. Multiple-year runs can be compared with each other and with other pipeline features. Services typically include data mapping, linear referenced data alignment, analysis, reporting and loading into a centralized GIS.
Gathering line integrity management - Recent and proposed integrity management rules for gathering companies are changing the regulatory landscape for gathering operators. These requirements are putting new pressure on operators to improve data collection, data management, analysis, and reporting. Since some previously non-jurisdictional lines are now jurisdictional, this has forced many operators to quickly respond and build a supporting enterprise-wide GIS infrastructure. Using available CAD, GIS, and/or paper data, New Century can create a gathering system GIS to meet operational and integrity management needs. We have the depth of experience in gathering system GIS implementation to build a world-class implementation.
We can assist in field GPS data collection and integration, often the most effective way to collect centerline and attribute data for gathering systems. We can also help develop GPS data dictionaries, data QC, and post-processing workflows that move this data into the GIS. Building on existing standards, we understand the unique needs and challenges of gathering systems.
Other integrity management solutions provided by New Century include:
Hydraulic Pressure Gradient - Using discharge and suction pressures along with pipeline attributes and features, we use four gas pressure loss calculation equations to automatically calculate and chart hydraulic pressure gradient.
Derate Pressure Assessment - Derate pressure is determined by taking one or more known derate points (which may be determined from an ILI run) and back-calculating a new discharge pressure set-point. Charts and a complete segment-by-segment report are generated.
3-D Profile Creation using DEM - this service takes an existing centerline and drapes it on a 3-D digital elevation model (DEM), providing smoothed and interpolated elevation points along the centerline. Gas operators use pipeline profile for internal corrosion (ICDA) analysis.
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