Czech first: GasNet starts building gas training and testing facility

GasNet, the Czech Republic’s largest gas distributor, will build a unique gas training and testing facility at its site inPardubice. It will become a comprehensive training and testing centre for gas workers and will be the only facility of its kind inthe entire Czech Republic. The gas distributor has begun construction of the first part of the facility in Pardubice.

A tap and a toast. GasNet’s Operations Director Petr Koutný and Construction Director Pavel Komsa launched the construction of the facility in Pardubice. They were joined by GasNet Special Works Director Petr Zajíček, Bohemia 3 regional manager Jakub Neterda and Zdeněk Sitař as an occupational health and safety representative. And, incidentally, because they are gas workers, they did not tap a foundation stone but a “foundation pipeline”. Five hammers therefore rang out on a yellow steel pipe directly at the construction site, launching a unique project for the entire Czech gas industry.

„Bringing the facility into operation will greatly strengthen workplace safety and the development of our people. Inthe past, we often had to deal with where to verify certain working procedures in practice or where to learn. We painstakingly searched for places that met our needs at ongoing gas infrastructure construction projects or elsewhere. Thanks to the facility, we will be able to train entire groups of our gas workers far more efficiently and in one place,“ says Petr Koutný, Director of Network Operations and Maintenance.

The facility will not only serve to improve the qualifications of gas technicians, but the distributor will also be able to test components of gas infrastructure here: materials, fittings and regulators. All of this will be done using three media – natural gas, hydrogen and their blend.

„We will also be able to simulate certain situations fromprevious years and clearly demonstrate the risks associated withnatural gas distribution and its properties. We will then test the same activities withnew gases that will enter our distribution network and for which the entire GasNet Group is intensively preparing,“ explains Petr Koutný.

The first excavations are already under way at the site of the future facility. Gas workers have begun building the compressed-air section, where they will practise high-risk situations without gas. Compressed air will be used instead, making it possible to demonstrate safely everything gas can do. This first part of the facility should be completed by mid-September. Construction will also gradually begin on the section of the facility for work with natural gas and hydrogen.

„From a construction perspective, this is an exceptional project. I am pleased that we have now moved into the implementation phase inPardubice as well – just as we have with our other key project inHranice near Aš. In building it, we must take into account a number of things we have never dealt with before. It places high demands on us interms of safety and operational management. We ourselves had to learn a great deal. Especially inpreparing its hydrogen section,“ says Pavel Komsa.

While natural gas will be supplied from the nearby medium-pressure distribution pipeline and a connected truck carrying a CNG storage tank, hydrogen will be available from a cylinder bundle. The facility will also include blending equipment to prepare gas mixtures withdifferent proportions of hydrogen and methane. The facility is planned to operate at pressures ranging from 1 bar to 25 bar. Gas workers will examine and work witha wide range of pipe diameters, from the smallest low-pressure pipes to DN 200.