The industrial park in Cranbrook is home to TransCanada Pipeline Inc.'s new offices and maintenance yard. — Photo courtesy Keith Powell
If you haven't driven through Cranbrook's Industrial Park lately you may not have noticed the new offices and maintenance facilities recently built by TransCanada Pipelines. The new facility is located next door to the recently constructed Fitness Inc. premises in the 200 Block of Industrial Road F.
TransCanada's maintenance crews look after the company's pipeline and compressor stations from the Crowsnest Pass to the American border at Kingsgate. This investment in new premises comes a number of years after the company sold their Gold Creek office and maintenance yard to the College of the Rockies.
Here's some additional background on TransCanada Pipelines, one of the Kootenays' major employers:
TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. transports the greatest volume of gas in North America. It operates 37,000 kilometres of pipeline in Canada as well as important interests in various Canadian and American pipelines totaling another 6,500 kilometres.
TransCanada's B.C. system operates a 171-kilometre pipeline transporting gas from the Alberta-British Columbia border, through the Rocky Mountain chain in the southern part of British Columbia, up to the border of Idaho. At that point, PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest distributes it through its own lines to the centres of consumption in California.
This pipeline is fed with natural gas from TransCanada's Alberta System near Crowsnest, Alberta. The gas is transported to PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest in Kingsgate, British Columbia. The line runs with the 36-inch and 42-inch pipeline of Foothills Pipe Lines (South B.C.) Ltd., also operated by TransCanada, through the Rocky Mountains to the Moyie River Valley where it is parallel to the road and the railway. At the Flathead Ridge, the pipelines reach the highest altitude (2,100 metres) 6,900 feet, in the entire Alberta-California system.
Compression stations are located at Crowsnest (Station 1), Elko (2A) and Moyie (2B). These stations contain 11 compressors driven by gas turbines totaling 136,779 kW of power. This system is fully automated and designed to be operated unmanned from two dispatching rooms — the first at the Crowsnest station and the second at Cranbrook, British Columbia.
