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Future regulation of the gas networks needs to encourage collaborative working with other interested parties to address environmental risks, Northern Gas Networks (NGN) has said.
Speaking at an EUA conference on utility regulation, NGN’s head of asset investment and innovation Gareth Mills said tackling increasingly common issues such as flooding, landslips and riverbank erosion separately will be “four or five times more expensive” than if a collaborative approach is taken.
He said the second eight-year regulation period of RIIO for gas networks needs to “start thinking slightly wider about these issues”, many of the solutions to which are “not immediately obvious”.
Mills said: “We could find ourselves in the position of investing to avoid incidents, while at the same time the local authority is also investing in local flooding defences, the Environment Agency is also investing in flooding defences, and as at Tadcaster, looking to reinforce the bridge at the same time.”
A gas pipe collapsed into the river from Tadcaster Bridge in Yorkshire in December, one of 10 incidents NGN experienced due to heavy rainfall in December last year.
Mills said: “One simple solution is that we go and address those ourselves, divert pipes. There are issues and costs associated with doing that.
“We have to work more collaboratively with these people who are looking at the same risk at the same time, and that’s going to become an increasingly more important aspect the regulatory framework needs to address.”
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