PIPELIFE - Opportunities and Challenges Ato develop a generic model for prescriptive maintenance in the energy sector

PIPELIFE

What did this initiative focus on?

The Energy industry is vital for the sustainable development of societies. Currently, this sector faces several challenges, as climate change and geopolitics (for example, the current global escalation of conflicts) and a diversity of ideas, skills and competencies are needed to deliver more safe and sustainable energy, with zero emissions by the year 2050. The PIPELIFE Bilateral initiative intends to promote the collaboration between IST-ID, SINTEF, EQUINOR and University of Stavanger, for the creation of a universal framework for risk-based maintenance of pipelines.

There is an important gap in the current state of knowledge, since the attempts made to predict the failure of pipelines address each degradation mechanism individually. These models intended to either predict the corrosion rate, pipe leakage, or failure type focusing mostly on corrosion related factors. None of the existing models address the synergy and simultaneity between degradation agents.

PIPELIFE Bilateral initiative promotes a more comprehensive condition assessment model and a risk-based maintenance model will be developed, which allows pipeline operators to take the necessary actions to prevent future failure that can cause catastrophic environmental damage as well as economic losses due to distribution interruption.