In the Field
Pump Station 9 control room spends nights alone, marking milestone

Earlier this month at a weekly pipeline department staff meeting, Pipeline Manager John Baldridge announced that a “major milestone” had been reached in the Strategic Reconfiguration (SR) process.

“Effective tonight,” he said, “we no longer have a night shift control room operator at Pump Station 9. This is the first time without night shift based at an active station.”

Thanking everyone involved with getting Pump Station 9 (PS 9) to the place it is now, Baldridge reminded his staff that not only did this represent a huge milestone in Strategic Reconfiguration (SR) progress, but also a major cultural shift for the organization.

Since start-up of TAPS, operating pump stations have had a control room operator on duty 24/7.

Technological advances installed as part of the reconfiguration project now allow for more in-depth monitoring of the pump station equipment from afar.

Security will remain on site for the foreseeable future, and officers will make periodic rounds of the station, but operations are now fully monitored by the Operations Control Center  (OCC) in Anchorage.

Operations and Maintenance personnel are available in the Delta Junction area should OCC need to call someone out at night. Since his initial announcement, Baldridge has reported that all is going as planned at PS 9 and SR is proceeding smoothly at the other locations. Pump Station 3 is in the run-in phase, and construction is ongoing at Pump Station 4 with an anticipated startup early in 2009.

“SR was designed so that pump stations could operate without people present all the time,” stated Baldridge. “I am pleased we have achieved this goal at Pump Station 9.”