Increased Regulations at Refineries, at least in California
Thursday October 13, 2016
This summer, the state of California proposed changes to regulations aimed at improving safety at oil refineries. You can see the full release here.
“Key features of the proposed regulations include:
- Increased employer accountability for the mechanical integrity of refinery equipment;
- Requirements to adopt inherently safer designs and systems, to the greatest extent feasible;
- Increased employee involvement in all aspects of the safety and prevention program;
- Periodic workplace safety culture assessments to evaluate whether management is appropriately emphasizing safety over production pressures;
- Authority for refinery personnel to shut down a unit if needed in the event of an unsafe condition or emergency and provisions for anonymous reporting of safety hazards;
- Requirements for investigations to determine root causes of any incidents that do occur and develop interim and permanent corrective measures in response; and
- Annual public reporting of refinery safety metrics”
I can’t argue with any of the points specified in the proposal. But of course, implementation is another animal all together. However, I think global technology trends will be able to help refineries adhere to these regulations.
For instance, the Industrial Internet of Things will enable plant personnel to continuously, and remotely, monitor mechanical equipment in the refinery. Various sensors can be placed on equipment to measure vibrations, heat output, flow rates, and acoustics among other variables. All of this data can be collected and analyzed by equipment experts, either on site or in a central location. In fact, many vendors of mechanical equipment offer this as a service and many other companies (including Schneider Electric) offer this service as well providing predictive maintenance capability to mechanical equipment.
