No matter where in the world you are, third party damage continues to be the greatest threat to the safe operation of transmission pipelines. 3rd Party damage takes many forms e.g. excavation and impact during construction or farming activity, but in nearly all cases physical impact can lead to either immediate or a delayed failure posing a threat to safety and to the environment. GE's ThreatScan impact detection system has been specifically developed to provide pipeline operators the means to reliably determine when and where their pipeline has been struck.
ThreatScan, is an acoustic based monitoring system that overcomes the traditional challenges faced by pipeline operators in providing effective management of the threat of 3rd party damage:
Reliable Detection
All pipeline operators need to detect strikes to their pipeline in order to investigate and determine appropriate responses. Rapid detection is possible through a series of proprietary, ATEX-certified hydrophones, which attach easily to pipeline facilities without the need for tapping. Knowledge of all strikes to an operator's pipeline is essential to reducing threatening activity and pipeline failures.
Continuous Monitoring
Unlike other techniques, ThreatScan is always listening, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So if anything happens to a pipeline ThreatScan knows about it. GE's remote monitoring center provides around the clock monitoring for potentially dangerous impacts to your pipeline. Should a strike occur, our center will quickly and accurately assesses the severity of each situation eliminating false alarms and identifying immediate threats with verified notifications sent within 30 minutes.
Accurate Localization
Reporting where an impact has occurred is an important feature of the ThreatScan system. Operators can quickly deploy crews to investigate damage at the specific location, stop on-going activity, respond to failures and develop repair plans.
Prevent Future Failures
Pipeline operators are consistently looking for operational efficiencies, reducing costs without reducing safe operations. ThreatScan provides a service that enables operators to not only rapidly respond to immediate threats to their pipeline, but additionally to effect repairs to damage that, if left, could lead to future failures with potentially much greater financial, safety and environmental consequences.
Effective
Alternate methods such as surveying used for 3rd party activity and damage generally need to be carried out too often or are too costly to retrofit to provide a truly effective means to safeguard from third party impact. By combining both full time monitoring of the entire pipeline length and tuning to the specific pipeline environment ThreatScan minimizes the likelihood of false calls.
Risk Mitigation
Knowing that your pipeline has been hit by a 3rd party is important but knowing how to identify the threat and determine what action to take to prevent it happening again is a key component of ensuring ongoing safety. ThreatScan's monthly activity report enables ongoing incident trending and risk assessment to establish mitigation strategies to limit the likelihood of re-occurrence and put a stop to repeat offenders.
