Within the last two years, E.ON Ruhrgas – operating a gas transmission grid of some 11,000 km – has standardised its emergency preparedness applications. Three different tools are presented in this paper. They are interlinked with each others and they have improved the velocity and quality of actions following an unintentional mode of operation (e.g. flow interruption).

Nowadays, a so-called Reporting Centre is staffed 24h a day, ready to manage mitigation measures or to co-ordinate the on-duty staff that is spread out over vast regions in Germany.

First, the architecture of a intrusion management tool, which is completely integrated in the SAP Enterprise portal, is described.

Second, benefits of a simplified GIS system – a schematic grid viewer (“Schemaplan”) – are shown. The schematic grid viewer includes all relevant information to assess the consequences that arise from a local flow interruption.
Objects considered relevant for this purpose are:

• pipelines (pipeline strings),
• main gate valves and twin branch connections,
• points of isolation (blinds, dished ends)
• stations such as M&R stations, compressor stations, storage sites,
• connections.

The third application is called “Casuistry”, a program providing new functionalities for swift and safe failure management on the basis of GIS data. The core element of this application is the tracing function which is designed to automatically compile the following information for any position selected on a pipeline:

• the shortest section that can be isolated
• all valves, that must be closed, to isolate this pipeline section
• all connections to the isolated section
• measures necessary to prevent services upstream and downstream of the isolated section from being disrupted
• measures to supply affected exit points
• contact names, phone and fax nos., e-mail etc. of affected parties.

All three applications are complementary parts of the Report Centre Portal.