Latest news
Summer 2018/19
energysafe issue 52
ESV Gas Safety Officers traveling
the distance to keep Victoria safe
By Michael Weber, Data Analyst, Gas and Pipeline Strategy
ESV’s Gas Safety Officers (GSOs) are responsible
for completing site assessments across Victoria,
traveling considerable distances to support the
needs of industry and the community.
As well as a great deal of work behind
the scenes assessing gas applications,
GSOs travel far and wide to complete
the site assessment of higher risk gas
work, before granting final acceptance
and gas supply to complex gas
installations. Approximately five GSOs
are scheduled to perform inspections
at any one time via a roster.
A review of ESV’s Gas Operations
department activities for July 2018
revealed the following information.
As the majority of complex gas work
is carried out in the metropolitan areas,
so individual distances travelled to
inspection sites are not significant
on there own; however, in July 2018
GSOs travelled a total of 47,814km
for scheduled inspections. If we
add the additional distance travelled
for re-inspections, that is, where non-
compliances were identified on initial
inspection, the total for July 2018 hits
52,294km. The average round trip
distance for inspections is 139km,
with a variance of as little as 6km to
a metropolitan inspection site and as
much as 1134km to regional sites,
such as Robinvale in North East Victoria.
GSO
Scheduled
Inspections (initial)
Average Distance
per Inspection (km)
1 10 9238 924
2 40 6694 167
3 25 5762 230
4 44 5220 119
5 31 4224 136
6 45 3500 78
7 45 3326 74
8 33 3204 97
9 30 2808 94
10 4 1142 286
11 15 1008 67
12 18 792 44
13 2 622 311
14
Total
1 274 274
343 47,814 139
Distances travelled during July 2018.
During July 2018, GSOs attended
375 inspections equating to around
19 inspections per working day carried
out by roughly five GSOs. Inspection
scheduling efficiencies are improved
by grouping work together based on
geographical location. GSOs also fly
to Mildura as required to service the
North West of Victoria.
With all this travel, two thirds of
inspections are within 50km distance
of ESV’s Glen Waverley office, while the
remainder is spread across the state.
16
Total Distance
Travelled (km)