Renewable natural gas plant O&M: Hire staff, contractors, or both?

Whether the project is a new RNG facility or an upgrade to an existing facility, additional O&M staff is usually needed. Equipping this staff with exceptional training, resources and access to spare parts is a must if your goal is to maximize uptime and achieve optimal gas production. If you are not able to do that, partner with someone who specializes in this.

Municipal Wastewater and Landfills

Depending on the size of the facility, in order to minimize downtime and maximize the facility performance, it will most likely be necessary to add one or more additional staff members. Based on projects Bartlett & West has completed, plants producing 250 scfm of gas often requires 1½-2 additional skilled operators. Some facilities will also supplement their staff with reputable, experienced contractors on an as-needed basis. This reduces the risk of not having staff redundancy in a key position.

Agriculture Plants

Dairies and other agriculture RNG plants are typically maintained by a team of experienced operator contractors that work in the general geographic area and service several different plants. The team approach helps keep costs down while also enabling rapid response to urgent requests whenever needed.

Assistance with Planning for O&M

Operating and maintaining an RNG plant is all in the details. Bartlett & West offers a turnkey solution for engineering design, procurement, construction, commissioning and support for the operations and maintenance of RNG projects. Because we have worked on dozens of projects, including dairies, landfills and municipal wastewater, we have a broad range of experience with different equipment manufacturers and know how to assemble a system that maximizes gas production based on a plant’s specific criteria. Our RNG Team has experienced industry veterans to help train operators and provide O&M services in select geographic areas. To learn more fill out the form below to tell us about your project or contact Mark Simms (mark.simms@bartwest.com).