Transcending national borders with seamless supply & transportation services that border on extraordinary.

‍The largest transmission company in Alberta, Canada wanted to expand the 230kV/138kV Pike Substation as part of the Christina Lake Area Transmission System Development initiative, and they needed a partner fluent in international substation supply. They turned to DIS-TRAN. While the scope of work was typical – the steel structures and everything that attaches to them – the job’s location in far northern Alberta, Canada, combined with a winter schedule, created a pressing set of challenges:

• Customs: Since we had to cross the Canadian border, we took a greater role in managing shipments ourselves — we even sent trucks directly to a manufacturer to pick up materials!
• Shipping: The job site was so far north, not even FedEx or UPS delivered. For smaller shipments, we found a reliable, independent Canadian shipping broker.
• Winter: With work being completed in a Canadian winter, we had to plan tactically to ensure transportation deliveries would be able to weather the sometimes punishing conditions.
• Standards: Equipment and project standards vary slightly from country to country, so we leveraged our existing network of suppliers, and found a few new ones, to meet every need.

In fact, not only did we get to flex our logistics and project management muscles by running a nearly frictionless project in an incredibly far-flung location, we were also able to forge new relationships and cement existing ones, all while meeting every substation spec down to the nuts and bolts.