Pipeline upgrade project focuses on startup of Pump Station 3 and moving Pump Station 9 off legacy equipment

Alyeska crews are now working to upgrade Pump Station 3 as part of Strategic Reconfiguration (SR). A decision was made in 2006 to undertake a phased startup of the pump stations. Pump Station 9, near the interior town of Delta Junction, was the first station to bring the new pumping equipment and control systems on line, in part because of its proximity to commercial power.

“We changed our approach to help the SR crews get the processes right before implementing the technology,” said John Plenger, SR Program Manager. “This phased approach also ensures work crews are able to take lessons learned to the remaining stations.”

Now, as work at PS 9, shown below, nears completion, crews have resumed SR work at PS 3, located north of the Brooks Range and Atigun Pass. SR construction work at PS 3 was nearing completion when work at the station was suspended in 2006. The project at PS 3 now focuses on completing construction, then moving on to functional checkout and commissioning.

Functional checkout involves a detailed process of checking all of the equipment and devices to ensure they work properly and are communicating with the control systems.

Commissioning will take this one step further to ensure the functional systems operate as designed, and prepare all documentation for handover to the team that will start up the station.

Under the SR project, Alyeska is installing electrically-driven pumping equipment at Pump Stations 1, 3, 4 and 9. Originally crews spent more than two years working simultaneously at each of the four pump stations, with the goal to complete the reconfigurations and put the new systems online all at once.

SR is a significant project for Alyeska’s overhaul of the pipeline that will modernize operations and allows for automation from the Operations Control Center, which will soon be moved from Valdez to Anchorage.