In September 2010 a massive gas explosion ripped through the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno, not too far from San Francisco International Airport. The explosion was so powerful it was registered as a magnitude 1.1 earthquake.

Subsequent investigations have identified that poor quality data was a contributory factor in the disaster. According to Fresnobee.com

The cause of the deadly rupture has not yet been determined, but the PUC said it is moving ahead with the penalty phase after the National Transportation Safety Board recently determined that PG&E incorrectly described the pipe as seamless when in fact it was seamed and welded, making it weaker than a seamless pipe.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/02/25/2285689/pge-faces-big-fine-over-gas-pipeline.html#

According to the San Francisco Chronicle the problems with PG&E’s data were nothing new, with problems stretching back almost 20 years.

Omissions or data-entry errors made when the system was developed – and left uncorrected – may explain why PG&E was unaware that the 1956-vintage pipeline that exploded in San Bruno on Sept. 9, killing eight people, had been built with a seam, according to records and interviews. Federal investigators have found that the explosion started at a poorly installed weld on the seam.

In addition to the information quality issues which contributed to the explosion, State investigators have requested documentation on pipeline pressure testing. However PG&E is missing up to 30% of that data in their electronic records and are having to trawl legacy paper records to find the data. Not having that data raises the risk of the company having to shut down their network to conduct the tests, at a cost of up to $500k per mile of pipe.

So, the potential financial impact could be up to $20k per day in fines, $500k per mile in testing, and lost revenues while the gas network is off-line, in addition to the legal liabilities which might arise in the case of the 8 deaths and the damage to property. That is not an insignificant outlay in the current economy and highlights the opportunity cost inherent in managing information as a mission critical asset.

Root Causes:

The root causes for the poor quality data identified by the San Francisco Chronicle included:

• Failure to check for errors on data entry from legacy paper records
• Failure to prevent inconsistent/incomplete data from being entered
• Inadequate checks on the accuracy of the data (e.g. did the number of pipe segments entered on the database match the number of pipe segments actually in the ground)
• Data might inadvertently have been deleted during record updates
• Incomplete data.
• Significant inaccuracies in GIS data (up to 70% according to their source)

In a set of circumstances that highlights how it can often be impossible to tackle information quality issues by focusing on the “database”, internet bandwidth was a factor in preventing updates to key data being made by PG&E staff. This was a factor in the wider “information architecture”.

The chairperson of the NTSB is quoted in the San Fransisco Chronicle

“This misinformation was not a minor record-keeping oversight,” she told a gathering of transportation officials in Washington, D.C., [in January]. “In the years since the pipe was put into service, decisions regarding inspections, operating pressures and risk management plans were all based on facts that were just plain wrong.”

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/02/12/MNAC1HLG95.DTL&ao=3#ixzz1Gf8mqBtX

Speaking in an interview with Directions Magazine, Bob Montgomery of Infotech discussed the importance of Data Quality dimensions such as accuracy (positional accuracy), currency, completeness, and trustworthiness (authenticity) of data about utilities grids. He also expressed the view that

A tragic event for any utility is a wake-up call for all utilities. Responsible stewardship of public utilities requires that priorities be set for infrastructure information improvement that has maximum impact on public safety and delivery efficiency.

For further comment and discussion from that Directions magazine article, click here.