Research Program 4 - Public Safety and Security of Supply
The goal of this research program was to sustain the world’s best practice safety and reliability performance of Australian energy pipelines. In aiming to maintain this exceptional safety record in an expanding environment, the Energy Pipelines CRC took the unique step of engaging seriously with the social science research available from high hazard industries about how to prevent accidents.
The experience from other sectors says that accidents are rarely the result of previously unknown technical mechanisms but occur when technical knowledge is not applied for a range of social and organisational reasons. The challenge in accident prevention is therefore related to those social and organisational factors.
Education was an integral part of this program and two seminar series, one for senior pipeline company executives and another for a more general industry audience will ensure that knowledge of the sociology of safety had a far reach into by the industry.
The Steering Committee overseeing RP4 was chaired by Ed De Prinse (APA Group) and the Program Leader was Dr Jan Hayes (RMIT University). Previous chairs included P{eter Tuft (independent) and Mike Malvazos (SA Government)
Key Program Areas
Research into organisational causes of accidents and how organisations can improve their safety performance.
Research into strengths and weaknesses of current pipeline technical regulatory regimes and their implementation.
Understanding ways in which pipelines and people can be protected when they interact.
Projects
RP4-01: Safety Incentive Schemes
RP4-02A: Sociology of Safety
RP4-02B: Safety in Design
RP4-02C: Sociology of Safety Minor Work
RP4-03: Organisational Design (PhD2 ANU)
RP4-04: Land Use Planning
RP4-06: Industry Seminars
RP4-07: Urban Planning Around Pipelines
RP4-08: Understanding Pipeline Awareness
RP4-09: Increasing Regulatory Effectiveness
RP4-10: Understanding ALARP
RP4-11: Incident Reporting
RP4-20A: Third Party Risks to Pipelines - Part 1
RP4-20B: Urban Planning for Pipelines
RP4-21A: RMIT RP4 Program Leader Start-Up
RP4-22:Organisational safety seminars
RP4-23: Learning and decision making for improved process safety
RP4-24: Uptake of process safety research by industry
RP4-25: Effectiveness of External Interference Protection Controls
RP4-26: Economic and technical regulation
RP6.4-01: AS2885 Safety Management Study Benchmarking
RP6.4-02: Sociological Analysis of San Bruno
RP6.4-03: Intergenerational Studies
