GSI CASE STUDY

Modernizing and bringing alarm management into compliance

 

The client

Major oil producer operating 14 major oil and gas production facilities in Prudhoe Bay on the remote North Slope of Alaska.

 

The situation

 

The client’s North Slope Facilities’ Control Systems were designed and built prior to ANSI/ISA 18.2 Alarm Management standards, were not standardized, spanned multiple years of technology and had no unifying alarm implementation philosophy. The need was to upgrade the original distributed control systems (DCS) for all facilities to current industry and engineering standards and a Company Alarm Philosophy.

 

 

 

The solution

 

GSI worked with the Operations and Discipline Engineering team to define a four-year program that would convert three to four facilities per year to a rationalized alarm management system. This would include a new sustainable and compliant alarm management system for Operations as well as training and documentation/rationalization sessions for each facility. Our solution was based on a single, unified Regional Alarm Philosophy. This is a dynamic document, subject to refinement as operators become experienced with a new way of operating a facility.

A key to the success of this project was including operators upfront to foster ownership by the operations team. Our team designed and configured an ANSI/ISA 18.2-compliant alarm management system on the existing legacy DCS and developed rules and templates to speed the rationalization process. We pre-rationalized each facility’s tag database per the rules and templates.

To ensure ongoing success, we conducted in-depth Documentation and Rationalization sessions with multi-disciplinary teams including operations, maintenance, instrumentation and alarm class owners /subject matter experts. Finally, we performed installation, FCO, SAT and operator training and post-commissioning support for over 500,000 tags across 14 major production facilities. Today, each facility has assigned alarm champions (an A-tech operator) accountable and responsible for alarm management.

 

 

 

Becoming compliant to ANSI/ISA 18.2 Alarm Management standards can seem like a daunting task because it is not simple or easy.  GSI’s proven methodology and tools can make the process efficient and help ensure your project is on time and on budget.”

Troy Johnson

Project manager, GSI

Our impact

 

Our solution drove key KPI improvements including:

  • 80% reduction in total number of alarms per day
  • 90% reduction in percent time in alarm flood
  • 50% reduction in average number of standing alarms

In addition, the implementation establishes conformance with Industry Standard ANSI/ISA 18.2 and with company standards. This was possible because our multi-platform expertise allowed our client to take advantage of our rationalization process regardless of their installed control system or historian.

 

 

 

CONTACT US TODAY

Glacier Services Inc. is part of The Koniag Energy and Water Services sector and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koniag, Inc., an Alaska Native Regional Corporation (ANC) formed pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA).

Contact us today to see how we can help you!

PHONE: 907-318-7801

ADDRESS: 1977 E. Bogard Rd. Wasilla, AK. 99654

info@koniagew.com