An Asset Criticality Study of an Energy System’s Portfolio—A Practical Application on a Gas Transmission Pipeline Network

The ability of a company to delineate between the criticality of their assets is an essential part of asset management. The authors have drafted a chapter that details a real-world application of methodologies which determine asset criticality on a gas transmission pipeline network. Historically, Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) have applied a criticality ranking to pipelines which is used to set priority for proactive and reactive maintenance activities. A new method for the application of a scoring system which supports the criticality ranking and is consistent across the GNI transmission asset base was required. To that end, a calculated scoring system, based on hazard, for pipelines has been developed. This scoring system is informed by semi-quantitative and qualitative risk scoring models and is shown to provide a reasonable representation of safety risk levels. The calculation and the alignment of scores to a criticality ranking of 1–10 for pipelines are described in this chapter. While this chapter features data from a specific transmission network, the approach is agnostic and can be implemented by network operators regardless of the location.