Advanced monitoring and alerting will help the Northeast company better protect assets and keep employees and communities safe.
Baron Weather, a recognized authority in global weather data technology, has been selected to provide National Fuel Gas Supply Corporation (National Fuel), a Northeast energy company, with specific datasets to integrate into its current Esri ArcGIS system. This will ensure the company meets new federal regulations for pipeline monitoring.
Baron will provide National Fuel with consolidating, location-specific weather data integrated into Esri technology to establish a proactive monitoring and alerting system to identify hazardous weather conditions that could threaten pipeline integrity.
Before enlisting Baron’s weather intelligence and expertise, National Fuel’s former process was manual and time-consuming, said Assistant General Manager of Engineering Services for National Fuel Michael Darr.
“We were looking for a real-time weather service that could deliver a data stream that would be consumed in an internal map-based application and provide us with 24/7 real-time weather alerts. The data is needed to provide incremental precipitation levels that we can analyze and customize into email alerts based on 24-hour rainfall accumulations. The automated solution is fast and accurate."
-- Michael Darr, Assistant General Manager of Engineering Services for National Fuel
Utilizing custom alerting through Esri’s ArcGIS GeoEvent Server, National Fuel is poised to swiftly identify and communicate potential threats along its extensive pipeline network, including risks such as mudslides and breaches.
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Baron Weather is crucial in supporting this initiative by providing a rolling 24-hour rainfall accumulation with updates every 4 minutes and continuously updating rainfall accumulations analysis. This data enables National Fuel to accurately pinpoint instances where rainfall surpasses predetermined thresholds. This not only ensures the safety of workers and the community but also enhances the overall sustainability of the infrastructure, aligning seamlessly with federal regulatory objectives of saving lives, preventing service disruptions, and fortifying supply chains.
“We are excited to be working with both Esri and National Fuel to define and implement a robust weather solution that meets the energy company’s demanding customer needs,” said Baron Weather Vice President of Enterprise Solutions Marc Krasner.
“In addition to our excellent data quality and development support, National Fuel selected us for our willingness to team up with Esri to create an elegant solution that’s easy to use, optimizing the Esri tools they already pay for and use daily, he added.
According to Darr, Baron spearheaded the project with National Fuel and Esri during the implementation to overcome the obstacles National Fuel faced. He said, “Baron was able to provide all our data needs and was incredible to work with to get the process up and running."
