February 2010 Vol. 237 No. 2

TechNotes

Buried District Regulator Stations Using Dresser FloSystems Prefabricated Sets

District regulator stations are often constructed in densely populated areas such as subdivision communities. They typically require a developer to commit a sizable piece of real estate and often create an unattractive and unappealing installation to the local residents.

They can also be quite onerous to the field technicians who perform maintenance operations.

Less Obtrusive Installation
However, near the Maryland community of Linthicum, BGE, the local utility, has developed a regulator station concept that is less obtrusive and more accessible.
The challenge was to reduce the size of the BGE monitoring regulator station footprint, increase accessibility for maintenance operations by locating the regulators aboveground while not creating an unattractive installation. BGE’s Steve Troch, supervisor of gas standards and engineering, and Craig Buppert, gas technical specialist, were challenged with the task. Working closely with John Gerwig, business development manager for Dresser FloSystems Prefabricated Sets, they jointly developed a cost-effective and attractive solution to the standard district regulator station.

The Solution
The design obstacles included a re-engineering of the current design to produce a prefabricated skid-mounted system which could be easily shipped, offloaded and set in the field while adhering to strict regulation standards and a tight budget.
Dresser and BGE collaborated on the engineering aspects and developed a design that could be factory-fabricated and easily transported and offloaded into an excavation. The 2-inch x 4-inch station was fabricated, assembled, tested and coated at the Dresser facility in Bradford, PA. Once complete, it was shipped to BGE, offloaded and installed in BGE’s system in October 2009 with only inlet/outlet connections made in the field. The set was then buried and aboveground cabinets installed.

Steve Troch commented, “Everyone at BGE was very pleased with the final result. BGE hopes to standardize this practice for all future district regulator station needs. Thanks to all that made this a successful project.”
The stations are custom-built to customer specifications and manufactured by API 1104 and ASME Section IX certified welders.