Southern Star
Seeing a clear future
Air and Emissions
Providing clean reliable energy to the communities we serve is a high priority at Southern Star. Total methane and greenhouse gas emissions decreased from 2018 to 2019 by an estimated 4.5% and 2.9%, respectively, despite an increase in system throughput. A significant portion of this decrease can be attributed to Southern Star’s partnership with the INGAA Methane Commitment initiatives to increase leak surveys, reduce bleeding pneumatic devices, and increase focus on rod packing leaks and changeouts. When stations do not have measured data, an average emission rate from stations that have been surveyed is used to estimate emissions. As voluntary surveys are completed at more stations, actual data replaces the average emission rates, and the quality of the overall data set improves. Completing voluntary leak surveys delivers a more realistic picture of the total greenhouse gas emissions across the system. We anticipate further reductions and even more superior numbers in our 2020 report, due to our INGAA Methane Commitment. The Commitment involves conducting leak surveys at all of our stations over the next several years, and Southern Star intends to not only meet this goal but to exceed it by completing the surveys earlier than originally anticipated. Starting in 2020, Southern Star will challenge the team to reduce methane emissions by 50% by 2030.
The 2018 Corporate Responsibility Report includes a section on Lost and Unaccounted for Gas (LUG) trends. The 2018 data set only contained the gas drained calculation and the entire LUG calculation was not included within last year’s report. The gas drained from 2018 to 2019 increased by 3.3%.
The annual percentage of LUG for 2019 was -0.09%. This was a reduction from that of 2017 and 2018, which came in at -0.14% and -0.19%, respectively. The 0.10% reduction in LUG from 2018 to 2019 is due to the benefits actualized from our Maintenance and Modernization Programs. Southern Star continues to work on improving these numbers yearly.
For more information visit the Southern Star Sustainability Report.