Under our Natural Gas Line Survey Program, we inspect thousands of kilometers of our pipelines every year. From May to October, our employees visit homes and businesses to walk the path of the natural gas distribution lines while using sensitive detection equipment, checking for potential leaks both under and above ground. It’s part of our commitment to your safety.
Although the method we’re using today is dependable, we wanted to explore new technologies to provide even greater accuracy and efficiency. That’s why we teamed up with Picarro, an industry leader for data-driven methane detection, to use the Picarro Surveyor. This surveyor uses a special laser technique and sophisticated data analytics to help detect natural gas leaks. It is 1,000 times more sensitive than the technology we’re using today and, since the Picarro Surveyor equipment can be mounted on a vehicle and collects data four times faster, we’re no longer inhibited by how fast we can walk!
We have several Picarro Surveyor vehicles in operation seven days a week, all over our service area in Alberta. We drive from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. because there’s less traffic and the equipment works best in the atmospheric pressure at that time. You may even see us more than once in your neighbourhood as we may need to drive past our service lines several times, this helps us collect the best data.
Traditionally, we might have needed to enter your yard to complete our work. Now, unless the surveyor detects a leak or our vehicle can't get close enough, we will no longer need access to your property. In those instances where we do need to enter your yard so our employees can safely inspect the pipeline with a handheld device, we’ll do so quickly during the day. If we can't access your yard, we'll leave you some contact information so we can book a quick appointment to complete our inspection.