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Home / Washington Business - September/October 2004 / NESCO's Smart Pigs Protect People from Pipeline Leaks |
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NESCO's Smart Pigs Protect People from Pipeline Leaks |
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Written On: September/October 2004 |
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Written By: by Carly West |
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Five years ago an Olympic Pipeline leak in Bellingham ignited an inferno in a city park, turned a stream into a river of fire and blackened what was a lush green forest. In the process, three young men perished.
This tragedy struck a community close to home, not in some far-off place like Iraq or Saudi Arabia. In reality, pipelines carrying hazardous and flammable materials can leak or be punctured, but a Washington company is going beyond what regulations require to prevent future tragedies.
Independently-owned National Energy Systems Company (NESCO) is a Kirkland-based company established in 1985. It owns and operates power plants in the western United States. One is a natural-gas-fired generating facility known as Sumas 1, operating near Sumas, WA, near the Canadian border north of Bellingham. NESCO has sought approval for a second, adjacent 660-megawatt facility to be known as Sumas 2.
In 2002, Sumas Cogeneration Company took a huge step toward protecting the environment as well as the public living near its Sumas power plant. Using what are known in the pipeline inspection industry as “smart pigs,” Sumas 1 inspectors constantly check a 3.7 mile segment of eight-inch pipeline that provides natural gas to the power plant.
Smart Pigs Pick Up Potential Leaks
The term “pig” originated years ago when a worker cleaning a pipeline noticed that the chunk of foam used to clean the line resembled a pig. While the foam pigs are still used to clean pipelines, advanced technology and increased safety concerns have led to the development of smart pigs similar to the devices which routinely inspect the 800-mile trans-Alaska oil pipeline running from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez in Alaska.
These pigs can do everything from cleaning to inspecting for cracks and leaks to mapping the exact placement of the line using a GPS (Global Positioning System) device. The later is important for contractors so pipelines are not nicked or punctured in the excavation process.
Smart pigs can test for line damage by running powerful magnets through the line to determine if there is metal erosion. It is called a magnetic flux leakage metal-loss test, and it can detect weakness inside and outside the pipeline. Determining where the metal is thinning allows enough warning to repair the pipeline before a leak occurs.
NESCO spends a lot of money testing the short pipeline to ensure its safety. For example, the company recently brought in Tuboscope Pipeline Services of Houston, at a cost of over $500,000, to conduct 11 pig runs over 14 days.
Pig Runs are Pricey But Revealing
During the inspections, tests revealed four small out-of-round non-metal loss features in the pipeline. Only one of the small depressions was big enough to be reported, according to federal and state regulations. Technicians located the dimple in the pipe and added a fail-safe patch. In addition to detecting the weaknesses in the line, the testing program also left the Sumas line equipped to do pigging runs on a more regular basis with the installation of smart pig launcher and receiver platforms.
The Sumas 1 testing story becomes even more impressive considering the company’s size and the fact that it is not in the gas production or transportation business.
NESCO produces electricity for our homes, businesses and lights at the football stadiums and concert halls. “To have a small power company implementing the type of testing that NESCO does sets a precedence for the entire industry,” AWB President Don Brunell said.
Bruce Thompson, senior vice president of NESCO, says, “For a long time the gas line business was not on a par with the energy production. Now things are changing. While still costly, there is sophisticated technology available and in use every day to decrease people’s worry about safety.”
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