The Reporting Centre supports a large number of plants. This means there are generally also a large number of measures and faults that need to be dealt with at any one time.

An essential prerequisite for efficient fault management, alongside the overview of all the systems and measures operated, is close cooperation with Operations, the fault rectification services and the dispatching centres.

• Ensuring 24/7 availability
• Channelling the flow of reports to one central organisational unit
• Structuring / assignment of the reports to on-call and fault rectification services
• Guarantee of alarm / information and escalation procedures
• Compliance with official requirements for information defined by the authorities
• Central, legally valid documentation of all fault reports in a way that will stand up in court
• Statutory requirements (including DVGW GW 1200)

• Pipeline systems for gas & oil
• Compressor systems
• Storage facilities
• Gas pressure regulating and metering stations
• Gas filling stations
• Telecontrol systems
• Telecommunication systems
• Cable networks
• Site administration
• Property protection / burglar alarm systems

Where an external report comes in over the phone, the Reporting Centre asks the caller targeted questions and, if relevant, provides important instructions on what to do.

The vast majority of faults and alarms, however, are brought to the attention of the Reporting Centre through the relevant surveillance and monitoring systems.

Reports, faults and alarms are basically assigned to either an incident or error category.

For gas-related incidents, for example, the allocation takes place according to the DVGW categories of fault / damage or accident. A sequence of operations and their scope is defined for each of these categories.

Alerts and notifications are directed at the following, among others:

• Fire service, police
• Fault rectification manager, on-call service teams
• German air traffic control and authorities
• Crisis committee

Where there are several faults at the same time, these are processed according to specified priorities.

The Reporting Centre’s tasks include the distribution of information to internal and external public agencies, including the Ministry of Economics, DVGW, mining authorities, energy authorities, etc.

All telephone calls plus all relevant procedures and steps are documented by the Reporting Centre in a way that will stand up in court.

Alerts
Sent to people or organisational units that are immediately charged with the execution of first measures / safety measures for damage limitation purposes.

The alert provides for “immediate action without culpable hesitation”.

Notifications
Sent to downstream people or organisational units who need to be notified promptly when certain faults are reported but who are not immediately responsible for the execution of first measures / safety measures for damage limitation purposes.

The notification provides for “prompt forwarding of transparent information”.

The Reporting Centre boasts cutting-edge communication and monitoring systems. SAP and geo-information systems support the Reporting Centre with rapid localisation, allocation and documentation of reports and faults.

Not least, such fault management also requires skilled and well-trained Reporting Centre staff.