Tokyo Gas’ Efforts Regarding Impact Assessment on Surroundings and Emergency Response Training

In Japan, 82 commercial Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRSs) were constructed as of March 1, 2017, but few impact assessments have been reported on the surroundings at HRS. In addition, as HRSs become more widespread, the number of HRSs around narrow urban areas will also increase. Thus, the necessity of impact assessments on the surroundings of HRSs is expected to increase. In order to confirm that the influence from our HRS is not problematic to the surrounding residences, we conducted an impact assessment on the surroundings at HRS by using the actual HRS construction plan. Although safety is one of the objects of an impact assessment, in Japan, the safety of an HRS is guaranteed by observing the High Pressure Gas Safety Act, its Technical Standards, and other related regulations. On the other hand, if an accident such as a hydrogen leak or hydrogen fire occurs at an HRS, it becomes important to prevent secondary disasters and to minimize influence on the surroundings by means of an initial response by the operators of the HRS. Therefore, we have conducted training to improve the emergency response capability of the HRS operators and to prevent secondary disasters. In this paper, we describe the abovementioned information with regard to an impact assessment on the surroundings and for emergency response training.