November 2014, Vol. 69, No. 11
Features
Consumers Energy Invests In The Future
Consumers Energy Company, Michigan’s largest utility provider, plans to spend $150 million this year to expand and upgrade its natural gas system that includes 28,000 miles of distribution and transmission pipelines serving 1.7 gas million customers throughout the state.
Along with other improvements under ongoing maintenance programs, the company’s enhanced infrastructure program is projected to replace 88 miles of pipeline through 59 projects to be completed by the end of the year.
“These projects represent this year’s portion of a 25-year program that ultimately will replace 3,370 miles of the system’s pipeline infrastructure,” said Holly Bowers, manager of gas asset management.
“The improvements are part of the company’s Enhanced Infrastructure Replacement Program (EIRP) conceived in 2011 with the first replacements beginning in 2012,” said Bowers. “Of the 3,370 miles to be replaced, 2,420 miles will be through the enhancement program with the remainder replaced under ongoing maintenance projects.”
“Segments to be replaced are selected annually using a risk-based methodology,” Bowers explained. “We anticipate that our cast iron infrastructure will be the first type of pipe that will be completely eliminated from our system over the next 10 to 15 years. In the first two years of the program, we replaced just over 104 miles of aging pipe.”
All sizes
Of the 88 miles of pipe scheduled to be replaced this year, 3.7 miles are transmission lines ranging from four to 20 inches in diameter. The distribution pipe being replaced is primarily cast iron and steel, ranging in size from four to 12 inches in diameter.
“Depending on operating conditions, the replacement pipe can range from two-inch to 8-inch plastic or two-inch to 12-inch steel,” Bowers said. “Services are renewed as part of distribution replacements, but that footage is not included in the 88 miles.”
In the first two years of the EIRP program, installed replacement pipe was approximately 68 percent plastic and 32 percent steel. Medium-density polyethylene is used for plastic installations.
EIRP distribution construction primarily is done by a seasonally-managed work force of Consumers Energy employees supplemented by contractors for selected services such as hard surface repair, traffic control, environmental cleanup and sewer locating.
Bowers said Consumers Energy has hired an additional 450 skilled employees over the past two years who are dedicated to a significant portion of this work.
Additional construction investment includes expanding and upgrading other areas of the company’s statewide natural gas system, utilizing a mix of Consumers Energy employees and contractor personnel.
Bowers said this work includes civic improvement, new business projects, customer attachment and system augmentation projects.
“Civic improvement projects,” she elaborated, “include replacement of our natural gas distribution infrastructure as a result of municipal or state infrastructure projects such as road, water, sewer, etc. The infrastructure may be in direct conflict or within the construction zone requiring us to replace our facilities. We also utilize this opportunity to upgrade the natural gas infrastructure when feasible.”
“New business projects consist of main and/or service installations resulting from customer requests for new service to residential/commercial/industrial buildings. The customer attachment projects are projects where we construct distribution facilities to provide gas service to residential customers who currently are heating with other fuel sources such as propane, fuel oil, etc. Our plan is to connect 2,500 customers through this program in 2014. There are significant savings for these customers as the cost to heat their homes with natural gas is much less than the cost of heating with propane.”
Augmentation projects upgrade the overall deliverability of its gas distribution system.
“We model our distribution system,” Bowers said, “to identify/anticipate geographic areas where the system may have deliverability concerns such as pressures or capacity in the future. Systems are upgraded or tied together to increase the deliverability of the system to ensure customers are provided the energy they need.”
HDD
Consumers Energy engineering specifies areas that are designed to be directional drilled due to environmental, governmental or other planning reasons. Construction crews have some flexibility to directional drill additional footage and areas for construction reasons.
“Many of our Enhanced Infrastructure Replacement Projects are in well-established neighborhoods suited for directional drilling,” said Bowers. “In addition, many of the municipalities are requesting our main to be installed under sidewalks. Due to these types of drivers, our estimate of bore versus trench ‘as designed’ is approximately 10 percent trench and 90 percent bore.”
Consumers Energy owns and operates three sizes of HDD equipment for work on the distribution system with pullback ratings of 9,000, 20,000 and 24,000 pounds. For transmission projects, HDD segments are contracted out, with the equipment used based on the size of pipe and needs of the project.
For open cut construction, Consumers Energy uses multiple types of excavation equipment based on project needs for efficiency and minimizing impact to customers and roads. Equipment includes trenchers, compact and large excavators, backhoe/-loaders, hydrovacs and traditional shovels.
“Modernizing our infrastructure to help provide safe and reliable service to our customers, along with system expansion, is our promise to Michigan to be able to deliver the energy our customers need when they need it,” said Bowers.
Consumers Energy is one of the nation’s largest combination utilities, providing electric and natural gas service to nearly 6.5 million of Michigan’s 10 million residents in all 68 Lower Peninsula counties.
Information provided by Consumers Energy includes “forward-looking statements” as defined by Consumers Energy’s SEC filings regarding the risks and uncertainties that could cause Consumers Energy’s actual results to differ materially.
FOR MORE INFO:
Consumers Energy, (800) 477-5050, www.consumersenergy.com
Safety First, All Day, Every Day
Safety is a priority on every Consumers Energy job.
“At the beginning of the day, employees are provided time to do pre-shift stretching before the crew leader conducts a tailboard discussion,” said Rick Snyder, gas construction manager of the company’s Enhanced Infrastructure Replacement Program. “The documented [tailboard] discussion includes how to deal with known hazards, awareness for changing conditions, safety flashes/incident reviews/near misses as well as safe work methods for the work to be performed that day.”
Throughout the day the employees complete their work according to standards with continuous oversight from the crew leader and random oversight from an inspector who is independent from the crew.
“When the outcome of completing a task is different than the expected results and no one is injured, employees are encouraged to complete a ‘near miss’ report so the incident can be reviewed with every employee,” Snyder said. “All employees are empowered to ‘stop the job’ as needed to address issues as they materialize. If a change in scope or personnel occurs a new tailboard discussion is completed and documented.”
Crossbores of gas lines through sewer pipes continue to be a concern throughout the country.
“Consumers Energy’s construction standards are intended to prevent any cross bores to sewer lines during construction of our facilities,” said Snyder. “We currently are in the process of developing a program to investigate past construction projects to identify legacy crossbores.”
A report about Consumer Energy’s comprehensive safety program was published in the January 2014 issue of Underground Construction.
Comments