PG&E outlines 2025 leak-detection pilots: drones, helicopter lidar and meter-set tape trials
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Summary
PG&E gas engineer Monique Montague told a CPUC workshop the utility deployed a new drone sensor into operations in 2025, used Bridger Photonics gas-mapping lidar for transmission surveys, piloted continuous monitoring at Los Medanos storage, and reported a 38-meter-set AlphaTape pilot reached a 100% success rate while operations evaluate a putty alternative.
Monique Montague, a gas engineer on PG&E’s research-and-development team, presented the utility’s 2025 updates to its Natural Gas Leak Abatement (NGLA) projects at a California Public Utilities Commission workshop. She described several pilots and near-term deployments intended to improve leak detection and reduce emissions.
“In 2025, our leak survey team deployed a new drone sensor into operation,” Montague said, adding that the utility narrowed earlier pilots to a single sensor and adjusted flight patterns and conditions to raise the probability of detection. PG&E deployed the drone to operations alongside an existing ARCAD unit.
Montague also described testing and a 2025 deployment of Bridger Photonics gas-mapping lidar on a helicopter for transmission-line surveys, saying the system’s localization capability performed well in pilots and earlier demonstrations. “Due to really promising results of our pilot, we actually deployed them into operation,” she said.
On storage monitoring, Montague said PG&E is piloting continuous sensors at its Los Medanos storage facility to supplement or replace daily wellhead visual surveys. Delivery was delayed by manufacturer supply-chain issues, she said, and the system had not yet been fully operationalized at the time of the workshop.
Montague summarized a field pilot of a silicone-based polymer tape (described as “AlphaTape”) for meter-set leaks: a 4-set in-house trial expanded to 38 meter sets and “we were ultimately able to get the success rate up to a 100%.” She cautioned that operations flagged installation difficulty in the field; PG&E is testing a putty-form of the same chemistry that could be easier to apply, and a recent GTI lab study of the putty completed last month.
PG&E also ran two vacuum-purging demonstrations at its Winter Gas Safety Academy this year. Montague said both vacuum systems reduced purge emissions and improved worker safety; the project has been handed to operations for additional field testing.
Montague closed by noting PG&E’s 2024 and 2025 annual compliance plans were denied by the commission and that PG&E plans to resubmit a revised filing in March. She listed candidate projects for 2026 — including additional aerial flyovers, fixed-wing leak-detection pilots and expanded continuous monitoring — and said the utility will continue evaluating priorities with stakeholders.
The presentation was followed by audience questions about field application of tape and putty products, whether putty would be used as a temporary repair or permanent fix, and the sequencing of pilots at larger sites such as McDonald Island. Montague said the tape has held in the field trial but operators remain cautious and will expand testing of the putty product before broader deployment.