Applying safety instrumented systems standards in the process industries
27/08/2009
New guide jointly published by leading industry associationsEEMUA, the Engineering Equipment & Materials Users' Association, the Energy Industries Council (EIC) and Oil & Gas UK jointly announce publication of a new industry guide: 'Guide to the application of IEC 61511 to safety instrumented systems in the UK process industries'.
This Guide, written by leading experts, including from the Health & Safety Executive, provides guidance and recommendations on the application of IEC 61511 for the specification and implementation of safety instrumented systems, systems designed to bring a process plant to a safe state should a hazardous incident occur. It is intended to explain how to use the IEC 61511 standard effectively and addresses the responsibility and deliverables of organisations involved in the specification, supply and maintenance of safety instrumented systems. IEC 61511, 'Functional safety – Safety instrumented systems for the process industry sector' is now widely accepted as the state-of-the-art for such systems.
The Guide gives general information for all users, together with guidance on organisational responsibilities for end users, designers, suppliers (of systems and products), integrators, installers and maintainers. It is particularly relevant to process industries such as onshore and offshore oil and gas, non-nuclear power generation, chemicals and petrochemicals. Other industries may choose to use the Guide also.
As a consequence of such recent incidents as Texas City and Buncefield, there is an increasing reliance on instrumented safety critical systems to achieve satisfactory risk levels. Safety regulators increasingly use international standards to decide on what is acceptable and it is generally accepted that effective implementation of the requirements of IEC 61511 is a demanding task. Users of this Guide should find that applying the standard to their organisation's operational practice is made simpler and more straightforward by following the Guide’s recommendations.
The Guide includes useful worksheets, forms and templates. For example, it includes a generic competence standard evaluation form for personnel appraisal, supplied in electronic form on the CD which accompanies the Guide.
EEMUA's Executive Director, Clive Tayler, said: "Our new Guide is designed to be practical and useful, a characteristic emphasised in all EEMUA’s publications. Its approach is to describe the activities required throughout the lifecycle of safety instrumented systems and cross-reference each activity to the relevant sub-clauses of IEC 61511."
Robert Paterson, Health, Safety and Employment Issues Director with Oil & Gas UK, said: "This invaluable reference document provides the offshore industry with up-to-date practical guidance on the specification and implementation of safety instrumented systems and, as such, makes an important contribution to effective safety management."
The Energy Industries Council's Chief Operating Officer, Paul Yaghmourian, said: "Suppliers to the energy industries will find this a valuable reference work; the guidance on specification and implementation of safety instrumented systems will greatly facilitate their work in this critical area."
The Director of the Health & Safety Executive's (HSE) Hazardous Installations Directorate, Gordon MacDonald, said: "HSE welcomes this initiative. It is an excellent example of industry partners coming together and demonstrating health and safety leadership by defining good practice on the key topic of safety instrumented systems. Such systems often play a central part in ensuring process safety in major hazard plant and installations in the chemical and petrochemical industries and in the oil and gas industries, both upstream and downstream. The benchmark of good practice for such systems is provided by the international standard, IEC 61511 (BS EN 61511). This new publication will assist industry in Great Britain in translating the requirements of IEC 61511 into practical and effective measures and thereby provides an important contribution towards preventing catastrophic incidents such as the explosion and fires at the Buncefield fuel storage depot."
'Guide to the application of IEC 61511 to safety instrumented systems in the UK process industries' (EEMUA 222) is available at the list price of £180 (plus p&p). Copies may be bought directly from EEMUA, EIC or Oil & Gas UK. A reduced price is available for members of the three associations.
