Montreal engineering students tour Enbridge's Edmonton facilities
By Jean-François Thibault, President and Founder, ÉTS (École de technologie supérieure) Energy Club
Jean-François Thibault, President and Founder, ÉTS (École de technologie supérieure) Energy Club, Montreal
Greetings from Montreal! The École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), a part of the Université du Québec network, is one of the four largest engineering schools in Canada. As a bachelor student in electrical engineering, I’m here for the cutting-edge education – and as head of the ÉTS Energy Club, I contribute to the student life of my university by helping to build bridges between energy-sector corporations and our students.
Over the past two years, I’ve organized noon-hour sessions on the ÉTS campus that have invited more than 50 speakers to discuss the various energy challenges being faced by our planet.
Two months ago, the ÉTS Energy Club raised the stakes with an exploratory mission to Alberta. I was part of a five-student entourage that visited various corporate headquarters and industrial sites in the energy industry, including Canada’s oil sands. One of the stops on our mission was a visit to Enbridge – where we toured the company’s engineering headquarters in the downtown core, as well as the Edmonton Terminal.
At Enbridge Pipelines Inc. headquarters, we were given an overview of the company’s operations, including pipeline monitoring and inspection programs. We learned about the pipeline fitness technologies used by Enbridge, including smart PIGs and SmartBalls. We also learned about Enbridge’s pipeline network control room, and the supervision technologies that are involved in it.
Also, perhaps you don’t know, but Enbridge is a much diversified enterprise. In addition to pipelines, Enbridge has operations in gas distribution, oil and gas storage, power transmission, and renewable energy. We took part in a discussion concerning the Enbridge energy portfolio, and we learned that in addition to investing in energy technologies that improve present-day pipeline safety and reliability, Enbridge is also investing to develop the technologies that the world will need in the coming decades. Enbridge delivers energy – every sort of energy.
Our group from the ÉTS Energy Club also visited Enbridge’s installations at the Edmonton Terminal. The site was impressive. Security was at a top level and the people who led the tour were really knowledgeable. We learned about crude testing, tank maintenance, and the detailed pipeline management involved in storing various types of crudes. We also had a briefing on the methods the on-site team has put in place to manage the Edmonton Terminal safely, responsibly, and securely.
We had a great visit at Enbridge, and we hope their people appreciated our enthusiasm. This mission was a tremendous experience, allowing us to develop our knowledge in some of the most practical ways.
I want to thank Enbridge for their commitment to the energy conversation in Canada, as well as their commitment to honesty and transparency about their operations. The information we got really enriched our academic knowledge base. Our visit to Enbridge was a valuable experience. It’s not every day that engineering students get access to facilities and equipment like we did. We really appreciated it, and we won’t soon forget it.
