PG&E Employees Showcase Skills at Gas Rodeo Competition in Livermore

Not all rodeos feature horses and livestock. For PG&E, the Gas Rodeo is every bit as exciting as the historic western event from which it draws its name, and is a chance for crews to showcase their technical skill.

This was the case recently as PG&E held its second annual Gas Rodeo at the company’s Livermore Training Facility.

As colleagues, friends and family cheered, teams competed throughout the day in a bid to represent PG&E at a national competition in Denver later this summer.

“It’s an honor and a privilege to represent for PG&E and our service area,” said Sean Moore, who works in San Jose.

The teams assembled gas meters from boxes of fittings and hand dug boxes to uncover objects at the bottom. The pipe-cutting event showcased gas employees’ precision and skill as they used a mechanical four-wheel cutter to slice through a six-inch pipe.

Crews demonstrated their specialized expertise, which they apply daily during their work throughout PG&E’s 70,000-square-mile service territory.

“They are our gas professionals, and they’re working on what is the most comprehensive asset modernization program in the country,” said PG&E’s Jesus Soto, senior vice president of Gas Operations. “This is the work that they do every day which is helping making us the safest, most reliable gas company in the U.S. To see them in action, to get a little bit of a competitive environment going is really a thrill to see.”

New to this year’s rodeo was the “locate and mark” event, which showcased the competitors’ abilities to quickly and accurately identify underground gas and electric equipment. Those flagging the facilities in the shortest amount of time and with the fewest mistakes in a 12-minute period advanced.

PG&E gas compliance representative Jevary Demry weighed in on the importance of having underground gas infrastructure marked, noting that “It makes it so that it’s safe for everybody else that’s out in the community.”

Shaun Mahanay and Jayson Visinoni, a two-person team of gas construction operators from Chico, were crowned 2016 Gas Rodeo champions of the two man division.

“We’re really excited that we’ve won this and we get to go to Colorado and represent for the company. It’s just something really neat. For the gas department it’s like the Olympics,” Mahanay said.

This team, along with the first and second placed winners of the two and four person divisions, will now go on to represent PG&E in the National Gas Rodeo in Denver in late August; while the locate and mark winners wrapped up their nationals this past weekend.

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