This is how we protect
the land, water and wildlife.

Methane has a global warming potential that is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide, which is why CEPA members who operate natural gas pipelines are working to reduce their methane emissions. In fact, for several years, CEPA’s Climate Change Work Group has focused on initiatives that will reduce these methane emissions across the pipeline industry.

In September 2016, the work group released a best management practice, Fugitive Emissions at Natural Gas Transmission and Storage Facilities, to provide an industry best practice including innovations and insights on how to mitigate and reduce fugitive leaks at natural gas transmission and storage facilities. Natural gas transmission pipelines and related facilities, including underground and liquefied natural gas storage operated by the pipeline companies, are responsible for 1.5 per cent of Canada’s total methane emissions, and this guide is intended to reduce those emissions even further.

The best practice document is a continuation of a project that began in 2010 with the Canadian Energy Partnership for Environmental Innovation. The initial project focused on potential sources of fugitive methane emissions from above-ground facilities along natural gas pipeline systems. The information from that program formed the basis of the current best management practice.

In 2016, revisions to the federal Fisheries Act placed new emphasis on the prevention of serious harm to fish and the sustainability and productivity of commercial, recreational and Indigenous fisheries.

CEPA, along with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Canadian Gas Association, are working together to update the Pipeline Associated Watercourse Crossing practices document to reflect the new revisions.

These science-based guidelines help pipeline operators improve their understanding and share knowledge of how best to design and build a pipeline around water and ensure construction has minimal impact on the environment, particularly fisheries.

With input from Fisheries and Oceans Canada, pipeline regulators, biologists, engineers and other experts, these guidelines analyze the variety of factors that companies must consider for watercourse crossings, and suggest the best possible action. The guidelines also include tools for improved self-assessment processes and technical information.

Released later in 2017, this document will be the fifth edition, reflecting the latest improvements, innovations and best practices for watercourse crossings.

The initial purpose of these mobile compressors was to avoid the cost of releasing gas to the atmosphere during pipeline maintenance.

Today, TransCanada also uses them to manage greenhouse (GHG) gas emissions.

Pulldown compressors are transported by trucks to areas across Canada where natural gas pipelines are being shut down for planned maintenance. The gas, which is primarily methane, is diverted from the pipeline to the mobile compressor stations where it is compressed. The mobile compressor stations can divert up to 80 per cent of natural gas in the pipeline.

TransCanada estimates that, in 2016, it avoided releasing more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through its Canadian pipeline operations by using these pulldown compressor stations. The company also recorded cost savings of more than $8 million.

The current fleet consists of eight pulldown compressors. Some are currently being refurbished, and a ninth compressor is in the design phase. Eventually the full fleet of mobile compressors will be put into service during planned maintenance.

Pulldown compressor stations are a win-win-win for TransCanada. They help to minimize the company’s environmental footprint, improve the quality of pipeline maintenance and contribute to the overall integrity of the TransCanada pipeline system. And they result in cost savings.

CEPA member, TransCanada, tested the capabilities of this type of technology by using IntelliView Technologies’ patented video analytics technology at a pump station. The year-long trial was intended to see if this technology would be an effective tool in TransCanada’s overall leak detection program. The trial took place on the Keystone Pipeline System and wrapped up in October 2016.

IntelliView’s thermal / visual imaging sensors and leak analysis software are designed to measure temperature, size, speed, shape of flow and colour. These technologies are used to quickly identify and analyze variances on the above-ground pipeline, and alert the monitoring stations to any anomalies that might signal a leak. The software sends data, detailed photographs, and videos of the leak location. The entire process takes approximately 30 seconds.

Over the course of the trial, four tests were conducted at different times of the year, under varying conditions for above-ground facilities. The results showed that the speed and sensitivity of the technology was beneficial to TransCanada’s leak detection systems and, through the testing program, noticed improvements such as a decrease in false alarm rates.

The reduction in false alarms is especially noteworthy because the company must investigate every alarm that comes in. False alarms can have substantial manpower and performance impacts.

TransCanada’s leak detection team has now completed the evaluation, and the company feels the technology has potential for complementing their already robust leak detection system for above-ground facilities.

Based on proven technologies and industry standards for long distance, large diameter liquid pipelines, TransCanada’s leak detection strategy incorporates overlapping methodologies to detect any leaks on TransCanada’s pipelines. The company’s Oil Control Centre operates around the clock using computerized leak detection systems as well as a sophisticated Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to monitor for leaks in real-time. To supplement real-time systems, non-real-time methods are also used to inspect, monitor and protect TransCanada’s pipelines. These multiple layers of protection, designed to detect all leaks, include:

• Aerial patrols
• Ground patrols and site inspections
• In-line inspections
• 24/7 real-time monitoring by competent and qualified pipeline and leak detection controllers using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA)
• A Public Awareness Program that provides regular training with first responders and others, such as landowners, in regions where TransCanada operates to recognize and report unusual conditions
• Highly-trained operators who have consistently shown that they are able to notice very small changes that could be related to a leak and shut the pipeline down within minutes

As part of its extensive research and development program, TransCanada routinely assesses and tests new technologies that might enhance their existing system. The real-time video analytics technology trial was partly funded through an award to IntelliView by Alberta Innovates.

In 2015, CEPA’s Geohazards Management Users Group began a multi-year initiative to test advanced technology to protect pipelines that cross bodies of water from these threats. One example is an acoustic monitoring system that can detect when underground pipelines have become exposed.

Phase three of this initiative began in 2016. Spectra Energy (now acquired by Enbridge Pipelines) successfully trialed an acoustic tool for monitoring a pipeline exposure at a Coquihalla River crossing in British Columbia. Later in 2017, Kinder Morgan Canada will explore the use of temperature monitoring equipment called river scour detection monitoring at their Crooked Creek pipeline crossings. The outcomes of these trials will inform what and how new technologies are adopted to protect watercourse crossings.

By developing new detection methods to help protect watercourse crossings, CEPA members are continuously improving the safe transportation of the energy Canadians need.

The result was a safer pipeline – and a Global Pipeline Award.

In September 2016, Enbridge won this prestigious award, which acknowledges the most outstanding innovations and technological advancements in the field of pipeline transportation. The award – presented by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers – also recognized Enbridge’s initiative to further develop the technologies they used in the project, and to openly communicate the results.

The Southern Manitoba Slope Remediation Project focused on an area in southern Manitoba where Enbridge’s Mainline pipeline network travels through a slope that is approximately 24 metres high and 85 metres long. Instrumentation results from 2011 had detected a slope movement issue on the right-of-way, which houses five crude oil transmission lines.

Enbridge evaluated the site by reviewing monitoring results from a variety of sources, including geotechnical site inspections and aerial photography and creating a computerized modeling system that considered the interaction between the soil and pipelines to evaluate the potential stress caused by slope movements.

They also implemented a full-scale mitigation project that included steps to minimize future stress on the lines. Read the full story here.

This is the third time a CEPA member has won the prestigious Global Pipeline Award in the last 11 years.

As a leader in renewable energy, Enbridge is building momentum on initiatives like power-to-gas technology and renewable natural gas, with a goal of implementation in 2017.

Power-to-gas technology
Enbridge has been actively developing its expertise on power-to-gas technology to help integrate natural gas and electricity infrastructure, which will enable the storage of low-carbon electricity. The company is building North America’s first utility-scale power-to-gas facility, which will be commissioned later this year.

Power-to-gas technology converts surplus renewable electricity into hydrogen, which can be stored. When the market demand for energy increases, this stored energy can be delivered back to consumers as renewable electricity or blended with natural gas and injected into the existing natural gas distribution network and transmission pipelines.

Renewable natural gas
Renewable natural gas is harvested from organic waste and biomass to help reduce emissions and divert landfill waste. When organic waste decomposes, it releases a mixture of gases, including methane. By capturing and cleaning this gas, it becomes renewable natural gas, which can be transported in existing pipelines to fuel trucks and to power homes.

Enbridge has already engaged with some municipalities about the potential to supply renewable natural gas for garbage trucks, once regulations are in place. Natural gas could fuel large trucks at up to 40 per cent less the cost than diesel, with 15 per cent lower emissions. Over the medium and long-term, renewable natural gas could fuel these same vehicles as a way to achieve zero emissions in heavy-duty trucking fleets.

On the regulatory front, the Ontario Energy Board recently announced a Technical Working Group to assess Enbridge’s gas supply plans. The assessment will include the company’s strategies to add renewable natural gas as a potential fuel source to reduce GHG emissions. Consultations are underway in 2017.

A range of renewable projects
Enbridge has a number of other renewable projects in place across Canada, including wind farms, solar energy operations, waste heat recovery facilities, a geothermal project and a hydroelectric facility.

Together, Enbridge’s renewable projects represent more than 3,800 megawatts (net) of green power capacity. That’s enough to power about 1,668,800 homes, based on gross generation figures – through projects either in operation, planned or under construction.

Enbridge takes a balanced view of sustainable energy, with the awareness that stranding existing infrastructure in favour of renewables is an expensive solution. The company’s leadership team envisions a future where the work they’re doing would enable consumers to choose fuels, based on cost and demand.