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Sep 28 2020

International Pipeline Conference Kicks off today!

Posted by TC Energy

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Today marks the start of the pipeline industry’s most prestigious event, the International Pipeline Conference (IPC) 2020. The biennial conference features executive panels, technical tutorials, plenary speeches and more over a jam-packed three-day event from September 28 to 30.

“The IPC brings together our industry’s brightest innovators to connect, collaborate, learn from each other and celebrate the spectacular achievements that are making our industry safer, more efficient and more sustainable,” says Leslie Kass, Executive Vice-President, Technical Centre.

Three of our executives will have feature spots in this year’s speaking line up:

On Tuesday September 29, Leslie Kass will be giving the lunch hour keynote speech. Later Tuesday afternoon, Chief Information Officer and Vice-President Information Services, Chris Foster will be participating in the Innovation Panel.

And on Wednesday afternoon, Stan Chapman, Executive Vice-President and President of U.S. Natural Gas Pipelines will be participating in the Executive Panel entitled “Managing Perceptions.”

Executive Speaking Schedule IPC 2020

Leslie Kass – EVP Technical Centre – Keynote Speech Safer Together
September 29, 2020, Tuesday - 12:10 pm MT

Chris Foster – CIO, VP IS,
Innovation Panel
September 29, 2020, Tuesday 
2:30 pm MT

Stan Chapman EVP U.S. Natural Gas, President U.S. Natural Gas – Executive Leadership Panel “Managing Perceptions
September 30, 2020, Wednesday 2:30 pm MT

Moving the Industry Forward

Our innovative spirit radiates across our business – it’s part of who we are – and nowhere is it more evident than at IPC 2020.

At IPC 2020, TC Energy will see 27 total technical papers accepted for publication – 12 per cent of total papers.

Nine of those 27 technical papers will be recommended for publication in academic journals and three (25 per cent) have been nominated for “Best Paper.”

  • Canada Gas Operations’ Deli Yu has been nominated alongside University of Calgary co-authors for their paper entitled: “Dynamic Stress Analysis of an Exposed Pipe Subjected to Moving ILI Tool

  • The Technical Centre’s Shenwei Zhang, Jonathan Law, Tammie Matchim, Maria Pino, and Ken Zhang have been nominated for their paper entitled, “Improved Surface Loading Stress Analysis Method Considering Protection Measures”

  • The Technical Centre’s Shahani Kariyawasam, Shenwei Zhang, and Jason Yan have been nominated for their paper entitled “A Data Driven Validation of Defect Assessment Model and its Safe Implementation.”

I’m so proud of the work our teams have put forward. TC Energy has long been recognized as a leader in innovation within our industry. As our partners in research are seeking more strategic and effective ways to tackle the most prominent industry-wide challenges, we have provided thought-leadership and strategic insight into their plans and we continue to push ourselves and the industry to embrace aspirational and visionary research and innovation goals in support of our sustainable future.”

Mark Yeomans
TC Energy’s Chief Engineer and Vice-President of Engineering and Research Programs


Leading through collaboration and sharing

We are demonstrating this type of leadership at all levels of the industry, and at IPC 2020, 50 per cent of the tutorials will be led by members of TC Energy’s workforce.

On Monday, September 28, the Technical Centre’s Kim Maddin, Alex Tomic and Dongliang Lu will be hosting the “Introduction to Risk and System Wide Risk Assessment (SWRA)” tutorial alongside C-FER Technologies, Smitha Koduru.

Following the SWRA tutorial, the Technical Centre’s Shahani Kariyawasam, Shenwei Zhang and Jennifer Klementis together with CGO’s Aaron Schartner will lead the “Effective ILI Based Corrosion Program with Improved Performance and Economy​” tutorial.

An Eye on the Future

The IPC looks at all areas of our industry including technical, financial and political subjects with a focus on the future. What is next, what will change and how will we adapt and learn? We will get a glimpse into the exciting future our industry holds and even get a glimpse of some future industry leaders and technologies as they emerge.

The Technical Centre’s Sukhi Gill is representing TC Energy on this year’s Young Professionals Panel. This panel is an opportunity for our industry’s next wave of leaders and innovators to talk about the challenges and opportunities they face.

“It’s our duty as young professionals to make sure companies educate this workforce on the role energy plays in our lives every day to shift the narrative,” says Sukhi. “We want to make sure that energy companies not only attract, retain and develop young talent, but also leverage young people to create innovative solutions and transform our industry.”

Innovation is part of our competitive advantage. Through innovation, we can anticipate change and build resiliency through uncertainty and volatility.

We are proud of our strong history of innovation over the last 20 years; it’s what got us to where we are today. At the same time, we must recognize it is not the same innovation that will be needed for the next 20 years, and we have tremendous opportunity to get there.