New Pumps Started at Pump Station 3: Second station to receive upgraded equipment

Alyeska started moving oil with its upgraded pumps at Pump Station 3 in early December, making it the second station to receive upgraded equipment. The company is continuing its upgrade and modernization of pump stations and control systems on the Trans Alaska Pipeline System through an effort called Strategic Reconfiguration (SR). This project involves installing electrically driven crude oil pumps at four critical pump stations combined with increased automation and upgraded control systems.

Crews will now monitor the performance of the new pumps and the turbine generators which power the equipment. The old equipment – known as legacy equipment – will be available during this time as backup if needed. Work at Pump Station 3 remains before Alyeska declares a complete startup of the operations there. This current testing is essential in providing assurance that the system meets the company's needs.

Teams have been monitoring the performance of the pumps under live operating conditions to ensure the equipment worked properly and safely. This testing was done during the day shift. At night, crews would switch operations to the old legacy equipment. In early January, the pump station ran on the legacy pumps while crews made modifications to the inlet air heaters – units found on the turbine generators (TGs) that run the SR pumps. The inlet air heaters for turbine combustion air were designed to heat incoming air to meet air-quality permit requirements for carbon monoxide during cold weather operations. The inlet air heaters were not meeting this design specification.

The turbine manufacturer submitted a design to address the issues with the inlet air heaters. After testing the altered TG, ensuring the fix worked and allowed Alyeska to meet all air-quality permit requirements, modifications were made to the second TG as well.

In February of last year, Alyeska began moving oil with the upgraded equipment at Pump Station 9 located near Delta Junction. Pump Station 9 uses electricity for the new equipment via commercial power from Golden Valley Electric Association. Power at Pump Station 3 will be provided by two new turbine generators.