SaskEnergy, a Crown-owned natural gas utility, serves more than 90% of Saskatchewan, Canada through its 343,000 customers. SaskEnergy and its transmission and storage subsidiary TransGas manage 80,000 kilometers of distribution, gathering and transmission pipeline. The TransGas network allows SaskEnergy to meet the harsh winter load demands, while allowing customers to purchase gas when prices are low, cushioning customers from seasonal price fluctuations.

Challenge
TransGas has hundreds of metering, control and storage facilities located in highly remote locations.  The company has stringent specifications which requires accurate daily real-time measurement polling. TransGas looked to implement a monitoring solution and turned to cellular communication to monitor remote areas where a dedicated data line can't easily be installed.

Solution
TransGas selected the Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven XT intelligent M2M platform.   The rugged design of the Raven XT, its compact form factor and its Class I Div 2 certification for use in hazardous conditions were key variables in TransGas’ device selection.

"AirLink products have historically been extremely reliable,” offered Alan Yurkowski, supervisor of SCADA Communications in TransGas’ Pipeline & Facility Automation group.

TransGas also requires strong remote management tools to simplify the provisioning, managing and troubleshooting of its remote equipment. The ACEware™ suite of tools and utilities provides these capabilities, enabling TransGas to monitor and control its network of wireless gateways from one central location. ACEware, coupled with ALEOS™ – the longstanding industry benchmark for reliable and feature-rich intelligence – ultimately lowers total cost of ownership (TCO) by virtually eliminating the need for field service to remote distribution point.

“We love that we can get diagnostic data off our equipment and apply patches without going into the field,” said Yurkowski. “New features on the Raven XT have the added benefit of allowing us to monitor the power supply to the radio. On solar powered sites, this will allow us to assess if the solar panel is failing or a battery is getting weak.”

The Raven XT running on advanced 3G networks have provided TransGas with the following benefits: