Gas Pipeline Leak Repairs Continue to Decline
Image courtesy of Consumers Energy under Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License, resized to 700 x 391 pixels.
A disturbing trend, which somewhat flies in the face of emergency preparedness, is that natural gas pipeline leak repairs are declining within the utility industry. Specifically, the number of pipeline repairs made by gas utilities with over 5,000 miles of distribution mains and service lines declined nearly 3% in 2022. Unfortunately, this is just the latest example of a long-term trend.
Implications of the Decline in Gas Pipeline Leak Repairs
The data, collected by S&P Global Market Intelligence in the fall of 2023, reflects a shift toward more modernized infrastructure and a decreased focus on pipeline safety.
Regulatory bodies, especially over the last 3-4 years, have encouraged natural gas utilities to move to various non-pipe alternatives and away from repair and/or replacement activity. This represents an “about face” compared to the previous decade, when multiple high-profile natural gas disasters led regulators to push for an acceleration in pipeline leak repairs and replacements.
While the repair trend is pointing down industrywide, despite current regulatory pressure, some gas utilities actually increased their leak repair activity year-over year – for example, California based utilities Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Gas Co. increased their year-over-year spending by 12.9% and 8.7%, respectively. Overall, 24 utilities individually repaired at least 5,000 leaks, representing 74% of total gas pipeline leak repairs during the year.
From an emergency preparedness perspective, it’s hard not to see this as at least a little problematic. Although I acknowledge that every sector of the utility industry is currently in a state of transition, in the short term we could be in for some rough waters. Simply put, the current infrastructure needs to be adequately maintained until the transition is complete. If not, reliability could take a hit. And the trend of declining gas pipeline leak repairs does not seem to indicate that this necessary level of maintenance is happening. I guess, as always, time will tell!
