Overseeing the integrity and safe operation of the natural gas transmission system in San Diego is an important job—one that SDG&E employee Steve Hale takes very seriously. Hale is part of the team responsible for ensuring the more than 200 miles of high pressure pipelines that deliver an average of 360 million cubic feet of natural gas into and throughout San Diego County every day, are operating at 100 percent at all times.
For Hale—who’s worked at SDG&E for 36 years—the highlight of his career as a gas transmission employee has been being a part of the modernization of the natural gas system as technology has advanced over the years, but also being out in the field ensuring that system is safely and reliably delivering natural gas to our customers.
“With advances in technology coupled with perfected practices over the years, we are able to inspect and make sure that these transmission pipelines are operated and maintained to federal and state safety codes,” said Hale.
Some of these advances in technology enable crews to physically see inside a pipeline with a robotic inspection tool and camera, which provides extremely detailed results on the condition of a pipeline.
Hale is part of a specialized team located here in San Diego fully dedicated to the daily operation and maintenance of SDG&E’s natural gas transmission system. These larger high-pressure pipelines make up the “backbone” of the natural gas system, which connects to the smaller distribution system of pipes that bring natural gas into our homes and businesses.
These operational employees assist the pipeline integrity team, which manages the Transmission Integrity Management Program (TIMP), which requires risk assessments on all natural gas transmission pipelines to identify any threat to operation, due to internal or external corrosion, any damage due to construction, operational, weather-related or third-party damage. A number of specialized inspections and tests are also included in TIMP to ensure the system is operating safely and the natural gas flowing to each and every one of our customers.