PR1
Natural gas is the energy source used most in Italy, partly due to the environmental benefits that it is capable of producing if used efficiently in the various sectors. However, gas is also a product that, due to its chemical and physical characteristics, must be managed and used responsibly, in order not to create hazardous situations for people and the environment.
Snam adopts and implements principles and international best practices to ensure service continuity, and promotes the acquisition of certifications of compliance with benchmark international standards.
Snam is committed to supplying the gas that companies and communities need on a daily basis, and to managing all activities in the system safely.
Management of emergencies
If a supply source is interrupted or even in periods of very high consumption, as in the early days of February 2012, Dispatching intervenes immediately by increasing the use of gas from storage fields. If, on the other hand, localised or short-term outages or irregularities occur in the transportation network, part of the gas contained in the network, known as the “line pack”, is used, thus preventing effects on regular supply to end users.
Lastly, if significant supply shortfalls should become manifest or be expected, Dispatching starts an internal process at Snam, which provides for immediate communication with the Ministry of Economic Development. The Ministry in turn calls a meeting of the gas system Technical Monitoring Committee, which evaluates the situation and proposes pertinent interventions on both the demand and the supply sides.
Interventions aimed at containing gas demand call for reducing supply to industrial customers that have signed up for voluntary incentive programmes and for action with electricity producers to maximise the use of alternative fuels to gas – generally fuel oil – in compliance with regulatory restrictions on emissions. On the supply side, actions target the network’s customers, the shippers, in order for them to increase imports to deal with the potential shortfall.
In terms of Crisis Management activities, besides the operating measures described above, a project is under way to adjust the Business Continuity management system to the new organisational structure. The system aims to guarantee the ability to maintain the business when faced with the occurrence of events serious enough to compromise normal operations.
Network oversight and maintenance
During the year, plants and pipes periodically undergo inspections and maintenance operations. Special attention is devoted to the course of the pipelines, which is inspected regularly on foot, by vehicles and by helicopter flyovers to detect potentially dangerous situations caused, for example, by third-party work near the pipelines. Snam signage used to give warning of pipeline presence was showed in a corporate planner disseminated among the affected local stakeholders.
Similarly, any landslides at specific points in the course are kept under control. The integrity of the pipes is also monitored, threading intelligent devices, or pigs, inside them, which make it possible to detect the presence of any defects.
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Network controls and inspections |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
|
Km of network inspected with pigs |
1,568 |
1,214 |
1,145 |
|
Km of network inspected with helicopter flyovers |
13,700 |
>14,100 |
>14,100 |
PR3
Information campaign for the safe use of gas equipment
Last year, in cooperation with the Municipality of Rome and the Rome Provincial Fire Service Command, Snam promoted an awareness and information campaign on safety in the use of natural gas.
The campaign’s objective was to make citizens aware of a subject as important as the safety of gas equipment for civilian use, thanks to exhaustive and wide-ranging information on the proper use of gas equipment intended to prevent household fires.
The campaign was devoted to proper use of gas equipment and devices, showing how religiously performing periodic maintenance can allow people to enjoy the many benefits that gas has always been able to offer in terms of comfort and safety. The numbers stated in the visuals for the communications campaign – the result of a hypothetical calculation of consumption for two couples – emphasise precisely the exceptional proportional difference between the time commitment required for proper use of equipment and the innumerable benefits deriving from it.
The campaign was disseminated from 14 November to 4 December in the daily newspapers and the main radio stations in Rome, as well as on the main stations in the greater metropolitan area and on the Roma Capitale communications channels, RadioRomaComune and the websites www.comune.roma.it and www.italgas.it. At the same time, it was disseminated in offices devoted to dealing with the public in the municipalities of Rome and in municipal libraries.
