Nov 14, 2013 3 min read

OAKDALE – Pittsburgh Technical Institute officially opened its new Energy Technology Center Nov. 7, a 15,000-square-foot classroom building that will serve as headquarters for the school’s programs in welding technology, HVAC technology and oil and gas electronics.

During a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony, PTI President Greg DeFeo told an audience of about 150 that the new $3.5 million center will enable students to experience trade-specific, hands-on coursework in each of three dedicated labs with the latest industry equipment specific to the welding, HVAC and oil and gas industries.

Partnering companies contributed nearly $750,000 in equipment and supplies to the center’s teaching labs.

“Companies such as Emerson Process Management and Lincoln Electric have helped us outfit our labs with some of the latest equipment and technologies for training,” DeFeo said.

He said the center represents PTI’s commitment “to build a pipeline of skilled professionals” to meet the needs of the region’s rapidly expanding energy industry.

He said the new center was a result of talks PTI began five years ago with companies working in the Marcellus Shale to assess the workforce skills needed by oil and gas exploration and production companies.

Earlier this year, the school announced a new certificate in welding technology and a special oil and gas electronics concentration to its electronics engineering technology associate’s degree program.

The new electronics program is designed to prepare students to meet the demand for midstream industrial and commercial automation technicians created by the exponential growth of the Marcellus and Utica shale plays. PTI’s is the first associate’s degree program in the region that concentrates on electronics for the energy sector.

DeFeo noted industry demand for many types of electronics, pipeline, field service and well site technicians, as well as welders, soldering and brazing workers, machinists, sheet metal workers, structural metal fabricators, boilermakers and pipe and steam fitters led to the creation of the new programs.

He said companies that included Range Resources, Consol Energy and MarkWest Energy Partners helped to build the curriculum.

PTI’s addition of the Energy Technology Center comes at a time when the region’s role as a center for all types of energy production and transmission technology is growing rapidly.

Guest speaker Dennis Yablonsky, chief executive officer of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, noted that there are now 1,700 companies employing 66,000 people in some aspect of fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable energy development, power generation or manufacturing and support services to the industry, contributing $25 billion in economic output.

But the conference, one of the largest economic development organizations for the region, wants to see the bulk of workforce demand met locally.

“We need to fill the growth here rather than have it happen somewhere else,” he said, acknowledging that it’s a tall order.

Shell Oil’s proposed ethane cracker plant for Beaver County has been projected to create a demand for as many as 1,000 welders, Yablonsky noted.

“We need places like (PTI),” to fill those needs, added Congressman Tim Murphy, R-Upper St. Clair, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

“People of all ages will come here for training.”