The main electricity and telecommunications services provider for Costa Rica, Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) (English: Costa Rican Institute of Electricity) experienced an electric power shortage in the largest city in the country, San Jose. A severe rainstorm caused flooding that damaged the city’s hydroelectric power plant. Two different plant locations were affected, and an immediate solution was crucial.

A well-known and prominent oil and gas company had recently completed construction of a new facility in the rural town of Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Here they were going to be processing field natural gas. The local utility was eight months late in upgrading their transmission lines to support this new facility. The company had no electricity to test, commission or operate the facility, presenting them with a major financial crisis.

Located amidst wildlife, in a rural town in Gabon, was a globally renowned oil company that was unable to achieve production goals due to insufficient power. The oil company experienced a failure of their 25-year-old gas turbine which had been built by a company that was no longer in business. The turbine couldn’t be repaired quickly, and the surrounding infrastructure was in decay.

Project Management and Engineering - from Start to Finish

In 2009, the single largest piece of gear that Peterson Power Systems ever sold was delivered: a fully self contained electrical switchgear building measuring over fifty feet long, sixteen feet wide, and sixteen feet tall. The unit weighed nearly one hundred thousand pounds, and was the primary piece of equipment in a multimillion dollar electrical upgrade project for the City of San Francisco’s Water Department.