DSEAR and hazardous areas

MANAGING RISKS AND MAINTAINING SAFETY COMPLIANCE IN PROCESS PLANTS

DSEAR and hazardous areas

Managing risks and maintaining safety compliance in process plants

What you need to know

Owning and operating hazardous process plant, particularly those that fall under the COMAH regulations (The COMAH Regulations 1999 - Statutory Instrument No. 743) requires the adherence and compliance to a number of regulations, standards and associated guidance documentation.

The assessment protocol used by the Competent Authority (CA) that determines compliance to the technical requirements of the COMAH report are described in Section 12 of the Safety Report Assessment (SRAM) produced by the HSE and includes a specific section that deals with Hazardous Areas. In conjunction with this criteria, the CA has also produced a framework and approach which it takes for the inspection of all EC&I systems at COMAH establishments. This specifies the benchmark standards, which are used to assess the management of risk by operators.

For Hazardous Areas the regulations and standards documents are:

• DSEAR Regulations 2002;

• DSEAR ACOP L138;

• BS EN60079.

These documents relate to:

• Risk assessment;

• Selection, design, installation, maintenance and periodic inspection of equipment;

• The management of these systems.

Why you need to know it

COMAH reports require you to evidence that your systems are compliant and are being managed, tested and maintained correctly. If you are unable to demonstrate this, the CA is likely to increase the level of monitoring at your site and therefore the frequency at which they carry out interventions. This increases your time and cost burden in the demonstration of robust management systems.

The processes noted above provide your site with the necessary evidence of risk mitigation against hazardous events created by ignition sources. Your staff and the community and environment in which you operate are heavily reliant on these systems to give them the layers of protection to prevent hazards from occurring.

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ARE YOUR SYSTEMS UP TO DATE?

What GSE Systems can do to help

We can provide you with support and advice to help you achieve compliance in DSEAR and hazardous areas. Our objective is to provide you with the assurance that you comply and allow you to get on with efficiently managing your site. Based on the collective and individual competencies and expertise of our highly skilled engineers, we offer a broad range of solutions to achieve compliance tailored to specific client needs. Such services may include a gap analysis of your documentation, the provision of a new or a review of existing risk assessments along with area classification exercises complete with full documentation. This can be stored within our standalone database for your continued use and management of your hazardous areas.

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR SYSTEMS?

How do you know you are complaint

The continuous management and upkeep of your risk assessment is one of the first steps in ensuring that you are compliant. Having the correct and current documentation for area classification and equipment inspections demonstrates that your systems are being managed correctly and that they are being managed at the right level. This should be combined with a database that provides you with equipment inventory and inspection frequencies complete with maintenance history to deliver a level of evidence based management for hazardous areas.

Constant pressures of time and cost along with operational issues on site such as staff turnover can mean that documentation and records used to manage hazardous areas is not adequately kept up to date.

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About GSE Systems

GSE Systems, Inc. is a world leader in real-time high-fidelity simulation, providing a wide range of simulation, training and engineering solutions to the power and process industries. Its comprehensive and modular solutions help customers achieve performance excellence in design, training and operations. GSE’s products and services are tailored to meet specific client requirements such as scope, budget and timeline. The Company has over four decades of experience, more than 1,100 installations, and hundreds of customers in over 50 countries spanning the globe.

Information about GSE Systems is available at www.gses.com.

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