CONSUMERS ENERGY CO — Gas transmission and gathering — incident on 2014-10-23

Gas transmission and gathering incident in WHITE PIGEON, ST. JOSEPH County, MI. Reported cause: INCORRECT OPERATION. Reported consequences: 0 fatalities, 0 injuries, 9258 NATURAL GAS released, $0 reported property damage. Operator-reported incident data submitted to PHMSA, generally within 30 days. Records may be supplemented or corrected and do not represent final agency causal findings.

Report number: 20140123.

Operator ID: 2748.

Reported incident date: 10/23/2014 0:39.

Cause detail: OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION

Cause detail: ON OCTOBER 23, 2014, A "PRIORITY 1, 120V" BATTERY REPLACEMENT ALARM FOR THE UNINTERRUPTED POWER SUPPLY (UPS) SYSTEM TRIGGERED AT WHITE PIGEON COMPRESSOR STATION IN ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, MICHIGAN. AT APPROXIMATELY 12:39 AM, AFTER SEVERAL UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO CLEAR THE ALARM, AN OPERATOR ATTEMPTED TO CLEAR THE ALARM BY CUTTING POWER TO THE UPS SYSTEM. SINCE THE UPS SYTEM CONTROLS BLOWDOWN VALVE SOLENOIDS AT WHITE PIGEON, THIS POWER INTERRUPTION CAUSED SEVEN BLOWDOWN VALVES (VALVE NUMBERS 634, 636, 638, 751, 761, 771, AND 781) TO VENT GAS TO ATMOSPHERE. ADDITIONAL ALARMS WERE TRIGGERED AS A RESULT OF THE BLOWDOWN VALVE OPERATION, PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS, AND LOSS OF POWER TO THE UPS AND DOWNSTREAM SYSTEMS. POWER WAS RESTORED TO THE UPS SYSTEM IMMEDIATELY AFTER SHUTDOWN. UPON ALARM ACKNOWLEDGMENT, BLOWDOWN VALVES WERE CLOSED BY A COMBINATION OF AUTOMATIC AND MANUAL OPERATION. AS A RESULT, THE BLOWDOWN VALVES VENTED FOR VARIOUS DURATIONS (BETWEEN 2 AND 11 MINUTES).

PHMSA trend classification: not significant, not serious.

PHMSA standardized cause: INCORRECT OPERATION — OTHER INCORRECT OPERATION.

PHMSA indexed costs: $47,658 reported total cost, $32,957.258 in 1984 dollars, $40,504.101 in current-year dollars.

PHMSA trend flags, standardized causes, and indexed costs are analytical fields added to operator-reported incident data. They do not represent final agency causal findings.