Jenny Hudson and Michael Dettloff highlight how ENTRUST’s EN Engineering and EN Consulting work together seamlessly, integrating their people and expertise to deliver successful projects for their clients.
Broad expertise and turnkey solutions
At ENTRUST Solutions Group, we can combine our industry-leading experience in gas consulting, gas engineering and design, to provide truly unique turnkey solutions. The experience of our people, in all aspects of the pipeline industry, makes ENTRUST distinct. When combined with a thorough knowledge of federal and state regulations, industry standards and safety management systems, we can deliver designs which are safe, reliable, and geared to practical operation by our clients.
A program exemplifying our turnkey solution is Asset Replacement. Our consulting team will support the initial program development, including creating a detailed prioritization strategy. As the program moves from the strategy phase into the design phase, ENTRUST teams work hand in hand, taking the project from concept/planning through detailed design, including designs for cathodic protection and AC mitigation. We provide full construction support, and our Field Services team performs construction inspection and management. We ensure that project as-builts are fully complete at the end of construction, and that the client has all necessary documentation to successfully close-out the project. We are also able to ensure records meet the requirements to be ‘traceable, verifiable and complete,’ through post-construction record and MTR reviews.
This turnkey solution is beneficial for clients who are looking to organize themselves internally and need to draw on our full range of skillsets.
Bringing expertise into a client partnership
At ENTRUST, we go beyond providing just engineering support. We include a complete integrated program of solutions designed with the client in mind. We are committed to working as a true partner with our clients – building strong relationships and making sure all our clients’ needs are met. Together, we focus on overcoming project challenges and guiding our clients through the pros and cons of different resolution methods.
Given an aging infrastructure and changing regulatory environment, many of our clients seek a comprehensive infrastructure management approach. Our team acts as an extension of the engineering and operating units of our customers. We offer a complete range of gas services, including engineering & design; field services & inspection; project/program management; system planning; GIS & data solutions; permitting; procurement; integrity management; corrosion control; and metallurgical services. We have the expertise to work closely with our clients to help them understand the ‘whys’ behind program regulations. Almost all of what we do is rooted in pipeline safety regulations, and our experts understand why regulations and requirements are implemented, what they mean, and how they need to be addressed.
Examples of client collaboration
During the design phase of projects, EN’s design specialists work closely with EN’s corrosion specialists to ensure proper corrosion prevention is design based on the client’s needs. Additionally, for projects that have steel pipelines/mains being designed near high voltage power transmission lines, EN’s design team will work closely with EN’s corrosion team to ensure appropriate AC mitigation is in place to protect the steel assets.
EN’s Consulting and Engineering teams are supporting a program to standardize a Midwest client’s small gate station, district regulator station, and large load customer meter and regulator station designs. To kick-off the program, EN’s team met with the client to collect relevant design standard documents, which included in-progress documentation, typical drawings, representative design packages and design procedures from each of the client’s operating areas. We further conducted on-site station visits and held discussions with the client’s subject matter experts to better understand their current design philosophies and current design practices. We then developed a summary of our key findings including design philosophy differences, deliverable format differences and deviations from industry best practice. To develop a standardized set of station designs, EN teams are using a series of workshops with key client stakeholders to identify a path forward on agreed upon design philosophies. Our design team will use these standard documents to complete new station designs for the client.
Future outlook
With an ever-changing regulatory landscape, it is critical that our clients remain informed about upcoming rulemaking. Our team is led by regulatory experts and individuals who have worked for PHMSA, State Public Utility Commissions, or other regulatory agencies, and they are continuously engaged with upcoming changes. We work together internally to ensure that there is full awareness of what we could be seeing several years from now from a regulatory perspective, to help educate our clients on what regulations could look like in the future.