Safety and integrity of pipeline systems - philosophy and experience in Germany

NTIS Invoice: 21917;NTIS Order #:DE98719010PDFProceedingsCONF-970197NEI-NO-878Pipeline safetyPipeline facilitiesGermanySchwier, K.NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITYNTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Hazardous Materials TransportationUS Transportation CollectionThe design, construction and operation of gas pipeline systems in Germany are subject to the Energy Act and associated regulations. This legal structure is based on a deterministic rather than a probabilistic safety philosophy, consisting of technical rules implemented by the gas industry itself and operator responsibilities. Governmental institutions only have a general supervisory function. This deterministic approach is aimed at achieving maximum primary safety. Citing various examples, this paper describes a number of measures. With a special methodology developed as a software package, it will in future be possible to use budget funds for operational safety programmes in such a way that maximum primary safety is achieved