Research Program 4 - Public Safety and Security of Supply

The goal of this research program is to sustain the world’s best practice safety and reliability performance of Australian energy pipelines. Australia’s pipeline industry is forecast to expand significantly in the next decade due to increasing domestic energy demand, large new export markets and the likely need for a carbon dioxide network to support planned developments in carbon capture and storage. In aiming to maintain this exceptional safety record in an expanding environment, the Energy Pipelines CRC is taking the unique step of engaging seriously with the social science research available from high hazard industries about how to prevent accidents.

street 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 is 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 will be absorbed by the industry.

The Steering Committee overseeing RP4 is chaired by Ed De Prinse (APA Group) and the Program Leader is Dr Jan Hayes (RMIT University).