Announcing the PODS Gas Distribution Model (GDM) Work Group

first meeting December 8th!

The PODS GDM Work Group will include PODS member companies, non-member companies, and Gas Technology Institute (GTI) in a chartered work group responsible for further development and testing of GDM v1.0. One of the primary goals of this work group will be to provide an assessment and recommendation to the PODS Technical Committee and Board of Directors regarding the feasibility, effort, and benefit of incorporating some or all of the GDM into the PODS Pipeline Data Model.  Other primary goals of the work group include proof-of-concept testing, completion of documentation, and further data modeling efforts to align and integrate the GDM into the PODS Pipeline Data Model.

Overview of the GDM

Interested parties should contact Janet Sinclair to join the PODS GDM Work Group. 

Background

The PODS Board of Directors supports the belief that the pipeline industry will be best served by a single, open, pipeline data model, which has been developed collaboratively, has a proven, robust architecture, and supports all pipeline assets from “well-connect to burner-tip.”

The PODS Pipeline Data Model was originally developed to assist pipeline operators meet integrity management regulatory requirements for natural gas and hazardous liquids transmission pipelines.  The PODS model has been expanded since its first release to maintain pace with regulatory requirements, to integrate emerging technologies, and to address additional needs identified by PODS-member companies.  The PODS Pipeline Data Model has been widely adopted as enterprise pipeline data management system for transmission and gathering. 

Gas Technology Institute (GTI), the same company who initiated the formation of the PODS Association in 1998, has recently spearheaded the development of the Gas Distribution Model (GDM) to assist Gas Utilities meet Distribution Integrity Management Program (DIMP) regulatory requirements. The GDM model is an emerging standard that was developed by a diverse group of operators, vendors, and industry experts as part of a GTI-led initiative. The GDM was designed to be implemented in a spatially-enabled Relational Database Management System (RDBMS), such as Microsoft SQL Server Spatial and Oracle Spatial, which are GIS-neutral. The conceptual design of the GDM was patterned after the PODS Data Model. 

GTI has assigned the Intellectual Property (IP) of the GDM to the PODS Association.

To PODS Board recognizes the alignment of the GDM effort with the PODS Mission, the technical merit and potential industry benefit the GDM offers, and the significant step the GDM provides toward the goal of achieving a single, open, collaborative pipeline data model to support all pipeline assets from “well-connect to burner-tip.” 

The PODS Association was created to develop and support open data storage and interchange standards to meet the specific data management needs of pipeline companies. 

PODS Mission Statement

The PODS Association is a not-for-profit Organization that develops and maintains pipeline data and interchange standards for the oil & gas pipeline industry.  The organization provides its members an environment to share knowledge by establishing a center of excellence for facilitating a global PODS community of practice.  The Association’s focus is to provide its domestic and international members a framework for leveraging industry standards in support of Information Management solutions related to onshore and offshore pipelines, gathering systems, and distribution systems as required to support the interests of its members. 

As discussed with the GDM stakeholders who participated in meetings held in January and February of 2011 with the PODS GDM Task Force, the PODS Board believes that the pipeline industry would be best served by a proven, robust, pipeline data model, which supports all pipeline assets equally well, from wellhead to burner tip.  Therefore, the PODS GDM Task Force has outlined a strategy to engage with GTI, PODS member companies, and other interested industry stakeholders, to make further progress towards this goal.  This strategy will allow for any work currently being conducted on GDM to continue, to maintain a level of participation from GTI, and to infuse new resources and leverage the expertise of additional pipeline companies into this effort. 

The PODS Board recognizes the potential benefit to the industry the incorporation of GDM into PODS may provide.  The result will be a modularized data model supporting all pipeline assets, from wellhead to burner tip.  PODS welcomes the opportunity to be the next leader in the further development and technology transfer to the pipeline industry.