Operational Excellence is fundamental to the way TransCanada does business.  Gas Control is one area in which Operational Excellence is put to the test every minute of every day.

One of the more significant initiatives for Calgary Gas Control in 2007 was the re-alignment of the current Canadian Mainline operating structure.  Three operating consoles were consolidated into two, and Northern Border Gas Control was added as a third operating console.  Despite no increase in staff, the result has been better coordination and realized cost savings.

A significant enabler to accomplishing this was streamlining our current Mainline Alarm structure, resulting in a 20-30 per cent reduction in alarms. Controllers can now focus more attention on monitoring and control of an expanded area of the pipeline network with a greater emphasis on optimization and potential efficiency gains.

Our Facilities
Our Calgary Gas Control facility is a consolidated Control Center that uses state-of-the-art systems and advanced analysis tools to provide gas control services for all of TransCanada's Canadian and several U.S. pipeline systems, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. 

Currently our Calgary Gas Control Centre provides services to almost 43,000 kilometres (27,000 miles) of pipe.  These pipeline systems include the Canadian Mainline, Alberta System (NGTL), Foothills, Trans Quebec and Maritimes Pipeline (TQM), Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS), and Northern Border systems

Gas Control remotely monitors and controls gas compression, metering, and remote valve facilities on a number of systems to ensure that required gas volumes, linepack and contract pressures are achieved on a daily basis.  The effective execution of operating plans and strategies are required to meet customer nominations while maintaining linepack targets that maximize overall system efficiency.

With TransCanada’s recent growth, there are currently five Gas Control facilities in North America.  These include 1) Calgary, Alberta, 2) Portland, Oregon, 3) Houston, Texas, 4) Troy, Michigan, and 5) Naranjos, Mexico. 

Gaining Efficiencies with Further Pipeline Integration
“Despite the addition of pipelines on our system and consolidation over the years, we continue to improve processes to keep the high levels of reliability our customers expect,” says Geoff Ward, manager, Gas Control.  “We work hard to integrate operationally excellent solutions into Gas Control and will continue to ensure continuous improvement into the future.”

Gas Control was previously comprised of 63 staff, seven control centres, and five Mainline Regional control centres.  Through organization efficiencies and system integration, staff was reduced to 37. These changes ultimately resulted in consolidation down to just one Calgary Gas control centre.  Through the years we have continued to expand the number of pipelines we monitor and control through that single control centre.

Further efficiencies were gained by aligning gas control under one Manager and introducing a Quality Management system to identify/implement best practices and streamline processes. The discipline of having a Management system instils consistency and ensures the right emphasis is placed on our tools, training, and work instructions, specific to day-to-day operation.

TransCanada strives for reliability and efficiencies and to operate in an environment of continuous improvement. As early as 1999, Calgary Gas Control aligned itself to the U.S. Department of Transportation/Office of Pipeline Safety Operator Qualification standard. This standard has proven itself to be very complementary to our training program and requires that all of our Gas Controllers re-qualify to the standard on an annual basis.