| Washington
Gas
Washington Gas delivers and sells natural gas to nearly 850,000 metered customers in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area and adjoining areas in Virginia and Maryland. Washington Gas’ distribution facilities consist mainly of 32 unmanned transportation gate stations, 500+ distribution regulator stations, and four peak shaving plants. "Providing customers with the safe and reliable delivery of natural gas is one of our highest priorities". The need for surge protection In the past, Washington Gas experienced equipment
damage at its remote gate stations when lightning Surge protection devices (SPD) are used to protect equipment from the potentially destructive effects of high-voltage transients by diverting the excess current and voltage until it subsides, while in normal operation they pass ac and dc signals with little or no attenuation. These devices operate instantaneously to divert a surge current to ground with no residual common mode voltage presented at the equipment terminals. Once the surge current has subsided, the SPD automatically restores normal operation and resets to a steady state to receive the next surge. The Surge Protection Solution After repeated lightning losses costing thousands
of dollars, Washington Gas decided to use surge protection devices
to protect the equipment at its remote sites. The Surge Protection Investment Delivers Quick Payback Shortly after installing the surge protection
equipment, Washington Gas was able to deliver an immediate payback
on its initial investment. Lightning hit near their storage Surge Protection Devices Protect Pipeline Instrumentation Investment Surge Protection Devices are used to protect instrumentation, power lines and data communication systems from induced surges and transient voltages. Today’s modern process control and high-speed communication systems rely on very sensitive high performance electronic components. The resulting surges and transients conducted on signal, communication and power cables can have a significant impact on operations, causing production down time and high repair and/or maintenance costs. Washington Gas’ decision to install
surge protection at all of its plants and gate stations has been
very beneficial. Maintenance costs have been greatly reduced by
protecting remote gate station equipment. The labour costs to send
a technician to the site also have been greatly reduced. We have
eliminated 90 percent plus of the overtime costs associated with
servicing gate station equipment after hours or on weekends in conjunction
with lightning storms. Washington Gas plans to protect all of its
plants and gate stations in the next two years to assure further
that we can safely, reliably and cost effectively provide our customers
with natural gas. |
struck
and power surges destroyed expensive instruments used to measure
the gas and odorant flow. Maintenance technicians were required
to travel long distances to these remote sites at all hours of the
day and night to make the necessary repairs, often taking a full
day and costing the company thousands of dollars . At the remote
gate stations, the primary cause of damage from a lightning strike
( more than 99%) is not due to a direct hit, where virtually nothing
survives, but to secondary effects of the strike, where the high
energy is resistively coupled through wiring into equipment with
different ground potentials. 
company
wanted a surge protection product line that could be easily installed
in both retrofit applications and new installations.The protector
for the remote transmitters had to be field mounted and rugged to
withstand the harsh environmental elements. The company wanted the
protector to mount directly to the field transmitter through the
unused conduit opening in the transmitter. Washington Gas chose
Telematic's rugged 
plant
in West Virginia (about a 2½ hour drive from Washington Gas
headquarters), and the three expensive transmitters measuring gas
flow in the pipeline were protected. Washington Gas’ supplier
had their redundant transmitters for their own gas flow measurement
and did not use surge protection, but instead had all of their transmitters
grounded in an effort to divert any surges to ground. Most of the
grounded transmitters were destroyed by the lightning strike while
none of Washington Gas’ transmitters were damaged, saving the
company thousands of dollars in equipment, repair time and downtime.
This application, where the all transmitters were mounted from the
same pipeline in the same area, presents a compelling argument for
the benefit of surge protection. The three instruments with surge
protection suffered no damage while the devices used by the gas
supplier that were only grounded were nearly all severely damaged.
