Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) has announced that it has completed demonstration testing of new gas detection sensors, employing its Advanced Meter communication system, as part of its overall pipeline safety efforts. The sensors can detect natural gas leaks quickly near natural gas pipelines and serves as an extra measure to improve the safety of SoCalGas’ system.
SoCalGas installed 12 sensors at monitoring stations that are reading methane-in-air concentration levels at various locations in the Los Angeles basin. These sensors read concentration levels every 5 minutes and allow SoCalGas to measure and monitor natural gas levels near high-pressure pipelines. The sensors detect methane in the air and send an alarm within 15 minutes to a monitoring system. The sensors are solar-powered and supplemented by battery. Each unit is contained in a small cabinet that can be attached either to an existing SoCalGas pole, wall or other structure.