TransCanada
TransCanada anticipates pipeline failures with AVEVA PI System
TransCanada, a major natural gas transmission company serving more than 20% of the U.S. market, oversees a network of 31,000 miles of pipelines connected to high-demand markets. The complexity of its asset base, with equipment of widely varying ages, sophistication and digital connectivity, made incident prevention particularly difficult, since a single cracked bearing or broken valve plate can escalate into a multimillion-dollar accident. Deploying AVEVA PI System enabled the company to monitor its network and anticipate failures before they become catastrophic. Operators now have a unified platform to identify weak signals, whether small mechanical anomalies or deeper drifts. The financial benefits are considerable, with $10.5 million in costs avoided through early failure detection, and savings that grow each year as the program matures.
Testimonials
FAQ
How does AVEVA PI System help monitor 31,000 miles of pipelines?
TransCanada operates a 31,000-mile pipeline network with equipment of varying ages and levels of connectivity. AVEVA PI System centralizes real-time operational data from the entire network, applies anomaly detection algorithms and enables operators to identify weak signals before they turn into incidents. This approach unifies the supervision of a highly distributed asset base, an essential condition for the reliability of an operator serving more than 20% of the U.S. natural gas market.
Why can a small problem cost millions of dollars in natural gas transmission?
A simple cracked bearing or broken valve plate can escalate into a multimillion-dollar incident on a pipeline. Pressure, transported volumes and environmental criticality amplify the consequences of an undetected failure. AVEVA PI System allows TransCanada to identify these "small problems" through continuous analysis of weak signals. The program has already avoided $10.5 million in failure-related costs, with savings growing every year as analytical maturity increases.
How does AVEVA PI System handle a heterogeneous fleet of industrial equipment?
TransCanada's fleet combines equipment with very different ages, levels of sophistication and digital connectivity. AVEVA PI System relies on a library of connectors (PI Connectors, PI Interfaces) that can retrieve data from the oldest PLCs as well as modern IIoT sensors. This aggregation layer unifies everything in a consistent repository, contextualized through Asset Framework. It is a major asset for operators of legacy infrastructure undergoing gradual digitalization.
What ROI can be expected from early anomaly detection on a pipeline network?
TransCanada has already avoided $10.5 million in costs thanks to early failure detection with AVEVA PI System. Savings grow every year of the program, as models become richer and the data-driven culture spreads across teams. Beyond the financial ROI, the solution strengthens operational safety, limits environmental risks and improves regulatory compliance—three major issues for natural gas operators facing increasingly demanding authorities.
How can gas transmission move from reactive to predictive maintenance?
AVEVA PI System continuously collects operating parameters (vibration, temperature, pressure) across all compressor stations and pipeline equipment. Algorithms detect deviations from normal behavior and raise alerts before critical degradation. TransCanada can therefore intervene at the right time, on the right equipment, avoiding both costly failures and unnecessary maintenance. This predictive approach has become a standard of digital transformation in the oil and gas sector, where the financial and safety stakes are high.