Page 18 - Gi flipbook February 2018

Hound about town

The dogs were
a big hit at LCNI

the spot with her paw or nose, then the whole sector moving forwards. The dogs could become part
lay down almost frozen but for a “This testing phase was an of everyday operations
wagging tail, her nose oriented to the opportunity for us to fully understand
point of highest concentration. Their if the gas detection dog concept could
reward? A well-chewed tennis ball. be rolled out as part of day-to-day
After this, a measure was taken by operations, but the dogs didn’t do
an Operational Response Engineer only that. They showed incredible
(ORE) with a GMI Gascoseeker to accuracy in finding escapes and
confirm if the dog was correct, speeding up the time it takes to
incorrect, had missed a leak or wrongly complete repairs.
indicated a leak where there was none. “Midge and Millie can reduce our
In total, the dogs detected 95 per impact on the environment and
cent of known leaking gas points, disruption to road users, and that Midge on the job
consistent despite changes to ultimately passes on savings and
temperature, wind speed, humidity, benefits to customers.” Following this, the commercial
and extended the search at 79 per The dogs then proved their worth in viability of the dogs was assessed and
cent of sites visited. real time, live on the day-to-day a framework introduced for their
This estimate is thought to be network. As well as locating several deployment at NGN over the next six
conservative, and exceeds the long-standing escapes in the Leeds months, allowing gas detection dogs
accuracy of detection dogs in other and North Riding patches, in to become business-as-usual
fields. The dogs appeared to perform September a burst water main led to technology for use.
better working into the wind, and a gas supply incident in the Leeds city Midge and Millie were then
oncoming gas, with greater accuracy centre community of Burmantofts. showcased at December’s Low Carbon
than the NGN ORE benchmark. Millie Around 550 properties were off gas Networks & Innovation (LCNI)
indicated no false positives and Midge on a cold day, with a large proportion conference, demonstrating their
just five per cent. of affected properties housing abilities to crowds of visitors at the
Project Manager Kingsley vulnerable customers. The gas NGN stand.
Wetherald said: “There was some detection dogs were called in to help “There’s been a lot of interest in the
initial pessimism about it, but during speed up the restoration of supplies. dogs from other networks, from both
the four-day trial in Wear I saw Able to locate mercaptan in the water, an operational and stakeholder
stakeholders’ opinions, both internal they traced the greatest perspective,” Richard continued.
and external, really change – they concentration back to the point where “We really believe they are adding
now believe in what the dog can do.” water was entering the network. great value to our operations and
NGN Head of Innovation Richard A post-incident calculation showed reducing the impact we have.
Hynes-Cooper said: “Innovation projects the incident was resolved two days “Initially there was some scepticism
can deliver huge benefits to our faster and saved around £85,000 in towards them from the guys in the
business and our customers and keep costs through their involvement. field, but when the dogs are out there
working and finding the escapes as
effectively as the existing technology,
The dogs detected 95 per cent of without the associated impact and in
a shorter period of time, it’s hard to
known leaking gas points, consistent argue against them.” ■

despite changes to temperature, wind ■ To learn more, email
speed, humidity, and extended the innovation@northerngas.co.uk visit
search at 79 per cent of sites visited www.northerngasnetworks.co.uk
or tweet @NGNgas

18

GasDetectionDogs.indd 3 18/01/2018 11:21