PRCI

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January 15, 2010

Technical Committees Meet to Kickoff the 2010 Research Program

The Pipeline Technical Committees

On October 20-22, 2009 the PRCI Pipeline Program Technical Committees met in Boston, MA. Over 100 Pipeline Members, Associate Members, Technical Planning Associate Members and invited guests of the Corrosion (CORR), the Design Materials and Construction (DMC), and the Operations and integrity (O&I) Technical Committees (TC) attended. Each of the TC meetings included multiple technical sessions and Project Team meetings to kickoff new projects approved on the 2010 ballot. These sessions included discussions leading to the development of detailed scopes of work and technical milestones for the projects. The three Pipeline TCs met concurrently to maximize the opportunities for individual TC members to attend select project scoping sessions of interest to them in one of the other TCs. Each of the TCs organized the Project Teams that will guide the technical work and identified potential contractors to perform the research projects. The meeting also included a review and discussion of selected ongoing active projects which were funded by the 2010 Ballot for additional phases of work to continue the research process to achieve successive goals.

Building on the research planning accomplished at the EPRG-PRCI-APIA joint technical meeting last year, the Technical Committees also identified opportunities to increase the benefits of cooperative research programs with the EPRG and the APIA-Research & Standards Committee (RSC). PRCI and APIA-RSC are benefiting from the higher level of integration achieved last year through the reciprocal membership agreement between the two organizations.


The Facilities Technical Committees

The PRCI Compressor and Pump Station Technical Committee met September 22-24, 2009 in Washington, DC. The meeting provided technical updates on all of the Committee’s ongoing projects, and project teams were formed for the newly-approved 2010 projects. As has become the custom, a liquid pump group met in a separate breakout session for a portion of the meeting to review pump matters. Moving forward into the 2011 planning cycle, the Committee will initiate its formal project planning and ballot development much earlier in the cycle. This will allow the increased iteration with contractors to improve the general understanding of, and buy-in for the projects, and allow more refined workscopes and project plans for the Board R&D ballot. This will cause a reduction in the time available for traditional project reviews, which will be pushed back more onto the project teams. This implies that the general purpose of the winter and spring Committee meetings is not to bring all members up to speed on the current status of every ongoing project, but rather to emphasize more thorough planning and project prioritization for the annual ballot. Final reports and important interim results will continue to be reviewed. Otherwise, members seeking interim project-specific details will need to access PRIME for periodic reports, or join the scheduled project conference calls.

The Measurement Technical Committee met on October 20-22 in San Antonio, TX. The meeting reviewed and staffed the newly funded 2010 measurement projects, and provided members a thorough review of ongoing work. The new Flow Measurement Research Library was demonstrated by CEESI, the contractor for the work and operator of a pre-existing library that is being significantly expanded and augmented via the PRCI project. The Flow Library was in Beta-test phase at the time of the meeting, but has since progressed to full operational status. It can be accessed by PRCI members via the Measurement Committee homepage in PRIME.

The Underground Storage Technical Committee met on November 19th in Pittsburgh, PA, immediately after the DOE Gas Storage Steering Committee meeting. Larry Kennedy of El Paso was elected as Committee Chairman to succeed Ray Harris of National Fuel Gas, who has served in the position since prior to PRCI’s incorporation of the industry’s storage program in 2005.

Click here to read more about the 2010 Research Program.

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