PG&E Gas Safety Academy
PG&E Gas Safety Academy | Winters, CA
On a 40-acre campus in Winters, CA, Pacific Gas & Electric Company's (PG&E) Gas Safety Academy provides realistic and hands-on gas operations training within a safe learning environment to train utility workers from all over Northern California. The new training facility is a Center of Excellence for PG&E, incorporating industry best practices and technology-led instruction that will elevate the standards of pipeline safety.
Project
Details
PG&E employees will be trained in three distinct buildings on the campus:
- The Learning Center: In addition to eight classrooms, a simulator room and an electrical workshop, the learning center includes a flow lab for high-pressure gas simulation and gas chromatography, where employees gain hands-on experience in regulating and monitoring the pressure and flow of natural gas. A focal point of the facility, the flow lab contains large, 46-ft. long pipes that have nearly every valve that PG&E technicians might encounter in the field on transmission and distribution gas lines. The pipes are pressurized by a large 300-horsepower air compressor, about the size of an SUV, capable of reaching pressure between 700-800 PSI, allowing PG&E to train its technicians under real-world conditions without the hazards of actual gas.
- Transmission & Distribution Tech Center: This area includes a utility worker covered training area, plastic fusion lab and an industrial safety at heights training area, giving students a simulation experience on trucks and excavation machinery used in the field.
- Weld Lab: The lab accommodates apprentice welders during three-year apprenticeships.
“This one-of-a-kind training facility not only represented a complex, technical project but also reflected many of DPR’s own values, safety, integrity, and self-initiated change while striving for continuous improvement in quality and service are tenets that motivated us every day as we built the gas safety academy, which will foster the same principles for its trainees.”
Ian Bolnik
Project Manager
On a 40-acre campus in Winters, CA, Pacific Gas & Electric Company's (PG&E) Gas Safety Academy provides realistic and hands-on gas operations training.
The new training facility is a Center of Excellence for PG&E, incorporating industry best practices and technology-led instruction that will elevate the standards of pipeline safety.
This campus provides a safe learning environment to train utility workers from all over Northern California.
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