Research & Innovation objective: safety

Research & Innovation have a key role to play in the continuous improvement of safety at Teréga, in each of the PARI 2025 focus areas. Its actions aim to: 

• Ensure the safety of people at their workstations

By contributing to the development of innovative solutions to improve safety in the field.

• Control industrial risks and ensure the integrity of the installations

By developing innovative technologies to inspect infrastructure, improving methods for protecting infrastructure against corrosion, anticipating malfunctions on our critical installations and improving storage monitoring.

• Preventing and eliminating undeclared third-party work

By improving our current grid monitoring tools and developing innovative and smart, real-time monitoring technologies.

• Preventing and preparing for risks: security, malicious acts and cybersecurity

By anticipating threats, improving our monitoring tools and finding solutions to limit the impact of a malicious act.

Digital technology is an important part of all these safety and security challenges. Whether it involves grid monitoring, storage monitoring or personal safety, our teams develop and test the digital tools that can best meet these needs: hypervisor, Artificial Intelligence, connected objects, etc.

To meet these objectives, our teams are engaged in various projects, sometimes in conjunction with external partners. Here are some examples:

Projects to better inspect and protect our pipelines

Downstream of the delivery stations, pressure reduction causes gas to cool rapidly. In some cases, this leads to unwanted frost deposits on the pipeline which can have several consequences: mechanical stresses on the pipework, warping of civil engineering works and difficulties in operating valves. We are therefore looking into different solutions to address this operational issue. A new innovative coating is currently being tested in the laboratory with the CANOE platform, an entity specialising in the R&D of composites and advanced materials.

Frost deposits on a pipeline.

In addition to specific external coatings, underground pipelines are protected from corrosion by cathodic protection systems. This technique consists in applying an electrical current to the metallic surface of the pipeline, to significantly reduce its corrosion potential. Studies are carried out by our teams to continuously improve the efficiency criteria of cathodic protection.

A project to monitor the grid using drones: prevention of undeclared third-party work

Undeclared work is a major safety issue for Teréga. Indeed, before carrying out any work, possibly near underground pipelines, it is necessary to fill out a DT-DICT work declaration so that operators can take the necessary measures. A significant risk of causing accidents would be created by ignoring this declaration. In addition to informing neighbours about this risk, we also monitor the gas transport grid regularly, mainly by car, but also by plane or helicopter for areas that are inaccessible.

In order to optimise our work, we are exploring a drone-monitoring solution with Thales, a world leader in high technology. The aim of this experiment is to make the use of drones possible and safe for monitoring infrastructure that is out of sight, thus reducing the environmental impact and the cost of operations while increasing the monitoring frequency.

Projects relating to storage monitoring techniques

The two storage facilities operated by Teréga at Lussagnet and Izaute make it possible to deal with seasonal variations in natural gas demand. The keystone of such infrastructure is monitoring. In addition to specific inspection pits, all precautions are taken in order to have an adequate monitoring system for measuring the potential impact on the environment and the groundwater.

To constantly improve monitoring of our underground storage facilities, our R&I teams are conducting several projects to develop:

• a geophysical solution for detecting the movement of fluids deep underground in order to monitor the gas storage bubble,

• a solution for monitoring the movement of surface land (swelling, subsidence) through radar interferometry using satellite images,

• a device for detecting unwanted emissions directly over storage facilities and wells, using a vehicle-mounted analyser. Developed with IFPEN, this tool should make it possible to visualise concentrations in real time and to determine the origin of the gas detected.

Aerial view of the Lussagnet storage facility.

Projects relating to safety at the workstation

In addition to the integrity of the infrastructure and its monitoring, the safety of the men and women who work in the field is a priority for Teréga. In order to stimulate collective intelligence and tackle our internal challenges on this issue, we have made use of our participatory innovation approach launched in 2020: TENEXI. Several calls for projects have been launched on safety issues that are priorities for us:

• people and machinery working alongside each other

• protection of isolated workers,

• managing risks relating to maintenance operations.