Onward & Upward: The Beginnings of TP&L’s Uptower Maintenance Division


When the powers-that-be at Transportation Partners & Logistics told Tyson Peterson that they wanted him to head a new division within the company, he jumped at the opportunity…even if he didn’t know what, exactly, he was jumping into.

Still, Peterson took on the task he was given and, in the span of approximately 18 months, he helped build the TP&L Uptower Maintenance Division.

The Uptower Maintenance Division is Transportation Partners & Logistics’ newest division, and it specializes in various different aspects of wind turbine work, and it includes a variety of different services, including wind turbine erection, maintenance projects, retrofitting, site support and troubleshooting on wind turbines, and more.

This division has done a lot of work in a very little amount of time, and much of its success can be traced to Peterson.

“It’s been amazing to be a part of something from the very get-go,” Peterson stated. “I actually started out my career with TP&L as a rigger at the Casper laydown yard. I soon advanced to the role of a foreman or assistant site manager at the Casper site and we had a very successful year. Then, the corporate management team asked if I would be interested in managing a new division. I asked what it was and they said it was going to be the Uptower Maintenance Division, so I said ‘Sign me up.’”

Originally, Peterson’s team was just himself and two other employees from the laydown yard. They trained for a period of time before serving as more of a support system for TP&L’s sister company, RENEW Energy. Following that, however, they began work on a maintenance project in Texas.

“At that time, we were probably only at about five employees and it was kind of undetermined on where we were going to go, direction-wise, with this division,” Peterson stated. “We were brand new to the Uptower side of things for TP&L and the future was unclear on where we were headed. But everything just fell in line. We secured that maintenance project in Texas and then last March we secured a project known as the ZF Gearbox Retro-Fit . After its successful completion, it opened the door for us to secure the several hundred turbine retro-fit projects that we are currently working on, in two different regions throughout the U.S.”

The ZF Gearbox Retro-Fit included several hundred wind turbines which showed Peterson and his bosses that more help was needed. In 18 months, the TP&L Uptower Maintenance Division went from 3 employees to 40.

“I didn’t expect everything to grow so fast,” Peterson said. “It was a very enjoyable challenge to be able to navigate through that and be able to juggle all of the various projects. I’m glad that we’ve come this far and I’m excited to see where we’re going in the next six months, to a year, to two years. I am just enamored with this division’s growth over the last 18 months. It’s turned into something so amazing, with all of the growing pains associated with it, all the triumphs, all the challenges; it’s good to see that we’ve successfully overcome those challenges and have been so successful.”

The division is very successful, and Peterson said it’s not because of him; it’s because of his technicians.

“I accepted this challenge and I accepted this position because I knew that deep down, I had what it took to take this on,” he stated. “But the growth of this division is solely reliant upon the work of my technicians out in the field. Their ability to exhibit professionalism and customer correspondence; these are the things I’ve preached to these guys and they have done an incredible job with it, from day one. We’ve gained a very good rapport with various site management teams out in the field. They’re impressed by our involvement. They’re impressed by our technicians’ work ethic and their punctuality. It’s just great to be a part of this team.”

The work that Peterson and his team do on a daily basis is why TP&L’s Uptower Maintenance Division has been the success that it is. To go from 3 employees to 40 in less than two years speaks not only to Peterson’s management style, but to the work the technicians do day in and day out.

It also speaks to Petersen’s managers; the men who were with him from the start of the very first project. Curtis Williams, Petersen’s Regional Manager, as well as Brad Elrod, his Sales Manager, were something of a Three Musketeers, all-for-one-one-for-all kind of team and Petersen said the projects would have been successful without Williams and Elrod.

“We three, since the beginning, have diligently worked very closely together and continue to do so operationally to ensure our forward progression,” Petersen said. “None of this would have ever been possible without their ever-continuing support.”

It really is a team approach, all around. From the managers to the technicians, everybody involved in the Uptower Maintenance Division work for each other, and with each other.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of something, to be a part of what this has become,” he stated. “It is, by far, one of the greatest experiences that I have ever taken part in and now it’s onward and upward and I look forward to the future.”

Peterson and his team continue to exemplify everything that Transportation Partners & Logistics represents, and when it comes to the future of this new TP&L division, well…things are looking up.

Press Coverage | Enid News


ENID, Okla. — Transportation Partners and Logistics is now the largest storage and distribution company for wind components in the United States, Enid Regional Development Alliance Board learned in a meeting Thursday.

“A lot of that’s because of Enid. They purchased an additional 80 acres and are looking to expand into that area — looking at some new buildings out on 66th Street, now that that’s been approved,” ERDA Executive Director Brent Kisling said. “They have become a very big player in the United States.”

Wyoming-based Transportation Partners and Logistics operates a transloading facility for wind turbine equipment on the northeast corner of 66th and Chestnut. The company only operates in parts for turbines in Oklahoma — not building wind turbines — and transporting and storing the eight components needed to build on, said Billy Brenton, vice president of the company, said in an interview with the News & Eagle last year.

“This facility will be a busy yard for four years just based on one customer,” Brenton said. “At the height of last summer, we had 132 people out there working and of that a good portion were trucking, which means they were eating in restaurants, staying in hotels and spending money here.”

According to the company’s website, the local facility has 180 acres of outdoor storage space, as well as 120,000-square-feet of indoor storage space. It has 8,000 feet of railroad track served by BNSF Railways.

TP&L also has rail distribution facilities in Garden City, Kan.; Grand Forks, N.D.; Casper, Wyo.; and O’Neill, Neb.

In other business, the board heard an update on Spotted Cow Packaging plans. The company, which is currently located in the business incubator, does co-packing and some food preparation.

Negotiations on a building on Cottonwood did not work out, Kisling told the board.

“We’re looking at some other options here in the community,” he said. “We have a company that is in the process of building a number of buildings in our industrial park out on 54th Street. We approached them about the potential of adding one more building to their mix.”

Some bids received earlier this week had good numbers, Kisling said. There could be a final contract for consideration as early as the board’s meeting in June, he said.

ERDA discussed the project in greater detail in executive session, which is closed to the public.

Click for the latest, full-access Enid News & Eagle headlines | Text Alerts | app downloads

Miller is city reporter for the Enid News & Eagle. She can be reached at jmiller@enidnews.com.

Press Coverage | Yahoo! Finance


CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

AWEA WINDPOWER – Transportation Partners and Logistics (TP&L) announced today that it owns and operates the largest wind power component distribution center in North America. With the recent expansion of its location in Garden City and additional distribution centers in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Nebraska, the company serves multiple industries including wind power with rail, port and trucking logistics support and management.

With more than 630 acres in its Garden City location alone, the company’s distribution centers to-date support more than 75 wind farms in North America and provide warehousing, indoor storage and logistical support for moving turbines and other wind energy generation components, ensuring they arrive to the job site on time. The company owns and operates state of the art equipment that can take wind power components from factory or port to job site.

“TP&L has built a strong presence in wind power by providing complete logistics support for wind farms being built across all of North America, including Canada and Mexico,” said Shelli Stacey, Director of Rail Logistics and a partner at TP&L. “Our customers depend on our ability to engage quickly, with customized solutions that get the job done right and on time. We look forward to serving this community as the demand for wind power continues to grow.”

TP&L is an asset-based company, ensuring it is fully scalable within its own fleet and completed “in-house.” Customers will enjoy quick turnaround time because the company never has to lease equipment or sub-contract for additional services. TP&L is the one of the only companies that can store, deliver and maintain wind power facilities to an industry growing every day.

To stay connected to TP&L please visit: www.tpandl.com

About TP&L

Currently serving a variety of OEMs, project developers and supply companies, TP&L provides logistics and transportation management for a variety of industries across the entire supply chain. Since 2012, TP&L’s unique one-stop-shop for logistics and management solutions has assisted more than 75 wind farms, multiple oil/gas drilling projects and agriculture throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

TP&L’s team of in-house engineers are top-load certified and ready to take the lead when it comes to any logistical needs. From port to pad we deliver – economically, safely and on time.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180507005736/en/