Modular Gate Station Systems

Northstar's Modular System Gate Stations provide a single building alternative, expandable to meet future demands, for custody transfer and regulator stations meeting all D.O.T. and A.G.A. requirements. These stations are designed and preconstructed entirely off-site by Northstar and installed on the customer's work site.

System Design

The off-site design allows all major components needed by the customer to fit in a single, or multiple precast concrete building and still meet or exceed all applicable codes and standards. In a typical configuration, all materials are assembled, painted, tubed, labeled, wired, tagged, and installed in a four-sided, precast concrete facility manufactured by Northstar before the building is shipped to the field. This greatly reduces the normal site time for welders, laborers, and project management; greatly reducing costs from the traditional, on-site, build-in-place, method historically employed in the industry.

This Modular System Design also eliminates the costly need for the customer to design and fabricate separate meter and control facilities. This cost saving effort reduces land costs, engineering overhead, and materials expense (click on the following for enlargements).

This design has great appeal in the post FERC Order 636 environment, where many new taps will be added for power plants, paper mills and distribution systems. These stations must be cost effective to meet rates of return and customer budgets. The Northstar System approach allows for a much smaller building footprint, and extends flexibility and efficiency. In summary, the Northstar System provides a more efficient alternative to the traditional multi-building design, connected by underground piping and conduit.

Major Design Modules

Metering

Preheating (using a proprietary shell and tube heating method)

Pressure regulation

Odorization

Control/SCADA Interface

Electric cogeneration

Metering

Our standard metering module use an ultrasonic orifice or turbine meters which send an output to RTU's located in the optional Data Acquisition and Control (DAC) Room located at the opposite end of the building.

Explosion-proof MC Cable is used to connect the device to the DAC equipment.

All seals are installed to meet the National Electric Code

Preheating

One of the unique features of the Northstar System is in the preheating module. Northstar has developed a patent-pending system which allows a great deal of heat transfer capacity to be present in a small area inside the building.

Can save up to 30 percent in fuel gas cost savings

Replaces large, outdoor, indirect fired heaters,

Substantially reduces noise, weather resistant, and requires minimum maintenance.

Pressure Regulation

Regulator runs can be provided for pressure regulation. A typical installation might include several regulators.

Odorization

An odorization package can be added using variously sized configurations, odorization tanks, containment skids, audit trail packages, and SCADA interface through the RTU. Typically, the odorizer and tank are placed in the center of the meter and regulating room to reduce overall costs. If a larger tank is needed or if it becomes necessary to separate the odorant from the metering and regulating equipment, a separate odorant room can easily be added to the station (click on photo for enlargement).

Control and SCADA Interface

A Data Acquisition and Control Room is another optional module. This room provides mounting locations for the RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) and UPS (uninterrupted power supply), the electrical service and motor control center, an emergency generator interface panel, and telephone interface. A wall mounted electric HVAC system can be provided for operator convenience.

Standard operator's work desk/chair

Permit board

Project data book documentation

All equipment wired and constructed off-site

Explosion-proof MC cable connects

Electric cogeneration module option.

Benefits

The Northstar Modular System Gate Station Design provides a turnkey, all concrete, single or multiple, preconstructed facility engineered to your specifications and needs and delivered to your job site.

System approach to gate station upgrade or new facility construction

Greatly reduces project costs

Reduces overall site size

Expandable to meet your future needs

Accommodates loads from 50 MCFH - 6,000 MCFH

Preconstructed off-site

No down time due to adverse weather

Significant reduction in travel and associated costs