Control Room Alarm Management - Invensysiom.invensys.com/EN/SoftwareGCC14Presentations... · Control Room Alarm Management ... Manager, Systems Development 9 Years with Iroquois Gas

IROQUOIS PIPELINE OPERATING COMPANY

Control Room Alarm Management

Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P.

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Jonathan Cottle Manager, Systems Development

9 Years with Iroquois Gas

Commercial Operations IT Manager

Project Development, Management, and Maintenance

Gas Control and Transportation Services Departments

Subsystems include: SCADA/Historian, Customer Activities Portal,

Informational Postings and Invoicing Systems

Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Section 1, #1

Agenda

The Pipeline and Control Room

Why Control Room Alarm Management?

Challenges while getting there

Risks and Consequences in doing nothing

How the challenges are addressed – 4 Methods

Future Initiatives

Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Section 1, #2

Key Facts

416-mile interstate natural

gas pipeline.

Begins at the TransCanada

interconnect in Iroquois,

Ontario.

Extends from the U.S.

Canadian border at

Waddington, NY, through

New York State and western

Connecticut to Commack,

NY.

And from Huntington, NY to

its terminus in Hunts Point

in Bronx, NY.


Interconnections

Waddington, NY to TransCanada

Pipelines

Canajoharie, NY to Dominion

Transmission

Wright, NY to Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Brookfield, CT to Algonquin Gas

Transmission

Shelton, CT to Tennessee Gas Pipeline

Compressor Stations

Croghan

Boonville

Wright

Athens

Dover

Brookfield – Algonquin Gas

Milford


IGTS Partners

44% TransCanada Pipelines Limited

23% Dominion Resources, Inc.

20% National Grid

6% New Jersey Resources Corporation

5% Iberdrola, U.S.A. Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Section 1, #5

Control Room

Workday staff:

Gas Controller

Transportation Representative

Chief Controller

Gas Control Manager

Off hours staff:

Gas Controller Only

Pipeline Operation

Coordination with Interconnects

Customer Inquiries

Nominations Scheduling

Dispatching Field Technicians


Conserve Controller Availability

Reduce nuisance alarms

Consolidate alarm groups

Evaluate necessity of alarms

RED: RESPONSE and DISPATCH required

YELLOW ALARMS: RESPONSE required / DISPATCH determined

Alarms NOT acknowledged until Response made

Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration…

Why Control Room Alarm Management? “Each operator using a SCADA system must have a written alarm

management plan to provide for effective controller response to

alarms…” CFR 192.631


§ 192.631 Control room management.

(e) Alarm management. Each operator using a SCADA system must have a written alarm management plan

to provide for effective controller response to alarms. An operator’s plan must include provisions to:

• (1) Review SCADA safety-related alarm operations using a process that

ensures alarms are accurate and support safe pipeline operations;

• (2) Identify at least once each calendar month points affecting safety that have been

taken off scan in the SCADA host, have had alarms inhibited,

generated false alarms, or that have had forced or manual values for periods of time exceeding that

required for associated maintenance or operating activities;

• (3) Verify the correct safety-related alarm set-point values and alarm descriptions at least

once each calendar year, but at intervals not to exceed 15 months;

• (4) Review the alarm management plan required by this paragraph at least once each calendar year, but at

intervals not exceeding 15 months, to determine the effectiveness of the plan;

• (5) Monitor the content and volume of general activity being directed to and required of

each controller at least once each calendar year, but at intervals not to exceed 15 months, that will assure

controllers have sufficient time to analyze and react to incoming alarms; and

• (6) Address deficiencies identified through the implementation of paragraphs (e)(1) through (e)(5) of this section.

Title 49: Transportation; PART 192 – TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL AND OTHER GAS BY

PIPELINE: MINIMUM FEDERAL SAFETY STANDARDS; Subpart L - Operations

Why Control Room Alarm Management?


Challenges to Alarm Management

Recurring (Nuisance) Alarms

Alarm Floods

“An alarm flood has been defined by ANSI/ISA 18.2 as being 10 or more

annunciated alarms in any 10-minute period per operator.”

Which ones require action, which can be ignored?

Maintenance Alarms (vs. Operational)

Conflicting Duties

Managing Facilities

Customer Interaction

Interconnects / Reductions

First Responders

Marketing Available Capacity

Dispatching / Issue Management

? Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Section 4, #1

Risks Associated with Doing Nothing

Safety : Public, Employees, Equipment, Property

Loss of Situational Awareness

System Abandonment

Reportable Operational Offenses

Audit / Fines

Business Efficiencies and Continuity

Unplanned Downtime


Four Methods to Address Challenges

1. SCADA Working Group

Gas Control/IT/Engineering/Field

Operations

Alarm Reports, Alarm Tracking

2. Reviewing Occurrences

Alarm History Screen

3. Alarm Acknowledgement

Metrics

4. Safety Related Testing History


Aggregating Data into VALUABLE Information

Tools for Alarm Management = INFORMATION

Volume and Content of Activity

Alarm Tracking Information

Alarm Acknowledgement

Safety Related Testing History

Anatomy of an Alarm = DATA

Tag Name

Alarm Characteristics (Priority, Site, Enabled status)

Alarm On Date/Time

Alarm Acknowledgement Info (Who, When, Where)

Alarm Off Date/Time


#1 - Reviewing Alarm Reports

Alarm Tracking: “Who has the ball?”

Create an Alarm Tracking lookup table using the tag as a key to join to and

include in the Alarm Reports.

Answers the question: “Didn’t we just discuss this last time?”

Methods of resolution:

•Resolve alarm condition

•Modify alarm criteria

•Remove alarm from SCADA


#1a - Current Alarm Report

Tracking Info


CO

NF

IDE

NT

IAL

#1b - Disabled Alarm Report

Possible Resolutions

•Address Issue in the Field (Pipeline, Devices, PLC/RTU logic)

•Remove Alarm from SCADA

•Schedule Re-Enabling (example: after field work completion)


CO

NF

IDE

NT

IAL

#1c - Alarm Count Report

Tracking Info Latest Occurrence Earliest Occurrence

Occurrences (2 weeks)


CO

NF

IDE

NT

IAL

#2 - Alarm History

The Alarm History page in SCADA is used to apply filters to alarm

events and user actions to develop a timeline.

Iroquois Gas Transmission System, L.P. Section 3, #2 Section 6, #7

#2 - Alarm History Screen

Dates

Color/Severity

Location

User

Alarm Name (prefix,tag)

Alarm State


#2 - Alarm History Screen

Dates: 9/17 5:30-5:45 AM Alarm Name = crgp

(Croghan prefix )


#3 - Alarm Acknowledgement

Customized reports collect and aggregate different categories of Alarm Acknowledgement time,

and monitor the volume of activity being directed at controllers.

Take caution before using this metric, valid circumstances can explain different reaction time.

Avoid consolidating all results to a single average. Rather look for trends in responding to certain

categories of alarms, or at certain times of day, or at certain volumes of activity


#4 - Safety Related Testing History

The Historian provides a historical verification of safety-related alarm set point tests pursuant

to federal guidelines.

“When was the last time this was tested?”

Make a SAFETY RELATED POINT lookup table to join to the Alarm Histories that includes

required testing intervals.

AUDIT REPORTS

Show Completed Testing

FORECASTING REPORTS

For Maintenance Planning


Future Initiatives

Future Pipeline Expansion Necessitates:

Expand Summary Alarm implementation

Historian is a valuable tool to identify alarm coincidence

Remove Maintenance from Operations

Identify maintenance alarms that can be removed from

SCADA

Access through Historian reports

Requires collaboration with Engineering


The Goal: Reduce Controller Distractions

Summary Alarms

Implementing Summary Alarms can reduce the number of alarms.

Defining groups of associated alarms that all require a similar response. Categories

implemented at Iroquois include:

•Cool down Lock-out

•Cool down Non-Lock-Out

•Fast Stop Lock-Out

•Fast Stop Non-Lock-Out

For each group create a new Summary Bit in the PLC that is set ON when any subset of

the alarms in the group are on.


The Goal: Reduce Controller Distractions

Draw a line between Operations and Maintenance

The primary responsibilities of the controller are safety, pipeline management, and

working with interconnects.

Remove Maintenance Alarms from SCADA and provide access to Historian to remove

the Control Room from this process.


RECAP & QUESTIONS?

Control Room Alarm Management Plan. Limited Controller Resources

Challenges: Filtering and Aggregating the Data

Risks and Consequences: Safety, Efficiency, Awareness…

Solution: Organize, Review, Develop/Maintain Metrics

Continuous Improvement


Documents

Control Room Alarm Management - Invensysiom.invensys.com/EN/SoftwareGCC14Presentations... · Control Room Alarm Management ... Manager, Systems Development 9 Years with Iroquois Gas