NiSource report marks implementation of Safety Management System, infrastructure updates
NiSource Inc. released its 2022 annual safety report last week, emphasizing work across its area that rendered a new Safety Management System (SMS), upgrades to customer-focused software and replacements of more than 265 miles of pipe, among others.
“We hold each other accountable to perform with excellence and to do the right things to keep the public and our employees safe above all else,” Bill Jefferson, executive vice president of operations and chief safety officer, said. “The millions of homes and businesses we serve depend on service that is safe first and foremost, and we thank all our employees, contractors, and business partners for their dedication to this critical shared responsibility.”
NiSource is a utility company with subsidiaries that allow it to serve a total of around 3.5 million natural gas and 500,000 electric customers across its six-state service area. To aid this service, the company notably replaced priority pipe this last year, swapping out aging wrought iron and bare steel lines, as well as the last remaining sections of known cast iron pipe for two of its state operating companies. At the same time, on the electric side, it replaced various electric transformers and breakers, rebuilt circuits, undergrounded certain cables, replaced and upgraded wood and steel poles and more.
If anything marked a standout in 2022, though, it would be NiSource’s deployment of the SMS, only the second company in the industry to do so. An SMS is a structured process that puts safety considerations on the same priority footing as other business practices.
Beyond this, the company also highlighted surveys of 15,230 miles of distribution pipe last year, using Picarro-equipped vehicles to detect advance leaks and mitigate 3,400 standard cubic feet per hour of carbon emissions.