Safety of Gas Infrastructure

During the year, we continued to implement measures to enhance the safety of our gas infrastructure. In 2007, we inspected over 14,600 sites and carried out over 7,500 km leakage survey on our pipelines. We also introduced our innovative Laser Methane Gas Detectors (LMD), which are able to detect gas leaks in remote or previously inaccessible locations. These new detectors not only improve the accuracy of our leakage surveys, they also allow our employees to perform manholes surveys safely on Hong Kong’s busy carriageways.

Leakage and Pipeline Surveys

Types of Pipelines	Frequency of Leakage Surveys
Transmission Pipelines
All high pressure and intermediate pressure B mains	At least once a year
Intermediate pressure A mains	At least once a year
Distribution pipelines
Polyethylene or steel pipes over or enclosed within structures	At least twice a year
Medium pressure ductile iron pipes or all galvanised iron pipes	At least six times a year
Low pressure ductile iron pipes	At least three times a year
Others	At least once a year

Our continuous efforts on other safety initiatives include:

Initiatives	Total Investment (HK$)
In-line inspections performed on 37 km of transmission pipelines.	5,000,000
Completed the direct assessment trial of external corrosion on commissioned transmission pipelines as part of overall integrity checks.	200,000
Conducted fitness for purpose assessments on inspected transmission pipelines.	600,000

The total number of gas seepage incidents in 2007 stood at 0.185 per km of underground network for the year, much lower than the figure in many other metropolitan cities.

Customer Safety

Customer safety is a top priority in our business. Towngas appliances are known for their compliance with the most stringent international gas safety standards. We also make every effort to enhance gas safety services for our customers. Ensuring even greater home safety for our customers, we carry out regular safety inspections on gas appliances in domestic premises every 18 months. In 2007, we took on over 900,000 such inspections, checking pipeline conditions and identifying appliances that may need maintenance or upgrading. These inspections were further extended during the year to cover the pipelines of commercial customers and we also carried out safety inspections on flueless and open-flue water heaters, together with comprehensive checks of all gas risers located in Hong Kong’s back streets to ensure their safety.

In addition to these regular inspections, we provide comprehensive gas safety information, together with games promoting safety, on our website, to enhance public awareness on this important subject. Taking a proactive approach, we also organise safety talks and exhibitions at housing estates and senior citizen centres. These programmes not only strengthen customer knowledge and understanding of gas safety, they also provide a communications platform as well as a forum of discussion within the community.

Corporate Occupational Health and Safety

Our industrial accident rate per 1,000 employees is very low compared with other workplaces in Hong Kong. In 2007, we recorded 5.4 incidents per 1,000 employees, against the Labour Department’s Industrial Accident Rate of 29.3 accidents per 1,000 employees.

During the year, we achieved a record-low accident rate, the lowest in the past 26 years. The Injury Industrial Accident Frequency Rate (AFR) was 0.32 and we recorded 16 cases of industrial accidents causing an injury, representing a decrease of 52.2% and 51.5% over 2006 respectively. We feel that these figures highlight the effectiveness of our precautionary measures together with our internationally recognised OHSAS 18001 occupational health and safety management system, which has been introduced to safeguard the health, safety and well-being of our employees.

	2007	2006
Number of Accidents – all industrial injuries1	16	33
Accident Frequency Rate ( Number of accidents per 100,000 man-hours)	0.32	0.67
Number of Reportable Accidents2	13	29
Accident Incidence Rate (Number of reportable accidents per 1,000 employees)	5.4	12.3
Number of industrial injury man-days lost	659	559

To continuously improve our safety performances, we issued a new “Corporate Risk Management Manual” together with two internal emergency guidelines. This documentation provides systematic and well-defined approaches in risk management together with the prevention and/or dealing of emergency situations. Employees awareness and understanding of internal OHS initiatives and practices are also underpinned by various awareness enhancement programmes.

As a safety-conscious public utility, one of our missions is to share our efforts and experiences in maintaining safety with the public. As such, we welcomed external organisations to visit our facilities to understand our OHS best practices. For example, the Green Cross Group of the Occupational Safety and Health Council visited our Corporate Emergency Control Centre, Grid Control Centre and Customer Service Hotline Centre in 2007.