CoGDEM Comment - Gas Distribution Networks Rewarded for Carbon Monoxide Initiatives

CoGDEM is the Council of Gas Detection and Environmental Monitoring, a trade association with a membership of around sixty companies involved in the gas detection industry. We are pleased to have ILM/ETP (the publishers of this IET magazine) as an Associate Member, so we now place a regular column of news from the gas detection industry in IET magazine.

In Great Britain, the fuel-gas network is regulated by the non-ministerial government department Ofgem, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets. The four network companies supplying piped gas to industrial and domestic customers are known as Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs) and they are National Grid, Northern Gas Networks, SGN (Scotia Gas Networks) and Wales & West Utilities. 

The GDNs are funded via Ofgem’s RIIO framework (Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs). Through the Gas Discretionary Reward Scheme (DRS), the RIIO framework also incentivises the GDNs to deliver outcomes for consumers in three areas: social outputs (e.g. vulnerable customers), environmental outputs (e.g. carbon dioxide emissions) and carbon monoxide safety outputs (e.g. awareness raising and detection) which are generally hard to measure but equally important for consumers as other outputs. Ofgem invites a panel of experts to assess the GDNs’ submissions for merit in these three distinct areas. Ofgem then uses the panel’s recommendations to make its final decision on the rewards. The DRS scheme runs every three years and Ofgem hopes it will stimulate the GDNs to go over and above their regulated duties in these three areas, bringing direct benefits to consumers, workers, the gas industry and the environment.

This year’s scheme was the first DRS under the RIIO-GD1 price control framework. Due to CoGDEM’s experience in the field of carbon monoxide (CO) detection and incidents, we were asked to join the July 2015 panel to comment specifically on the CO aspects of the DRS submissions, and to further question the GDNs about some details of their CO related activities and innovations.  It was interesting to hear about the successful deployment of domestic CO alarms, the use of industrial-grade portable gas detection instruments for protecting the GDNs’ field workers, and the innovative use of leak-seeking instruments. 

All four GDNs demonstrated new ways of raising awareness of CO issues amongst domestic consumers with some new collaborative efforts that are to be expanded in future years.  For example, projects trialling new smart CO alarms were presented, as were campaigns to bring CO to the attention of university students in rented accommodation and schoolchildren.  The provision of free CO alarms to vulnerable consumers was also a common theme amongst the GDNs, as was the recognition of social groups that may be particularly at risk of CO poisoning.  Other activities will have helped to protect people during leisure activities, such as camping and caravanning where there is a risk of CO emissions from bottled gas heating and cooking appliances, and the use of charcoal barbeques in enclosed and poorly ventilated spaces has led to serious (fatal) CO incidents in recent years.

After interviewing the GDNs, the panel members helped Ofgem to decide the financial rewards that should be allocated to the companies.  It was decided to award a total of a little over £3 million to the four GDNs to recognise the successful approaches that had been presented across the Social, Environmental and Carbon Monoxide outputs, both as individual companies and by collaboration.