January 12, 2017 Yesterday and today, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (“PHMSA”) has been conducting a public meeting of the Gas Pipeline Technical Advisory Committee to discuss the recently passed natural gas pipeline “mega” rule. Jones Day Publication published an article in June of 2016 that provides an excellent overview of the rule. Key …
What are the considerations when combining regulated and non-regulated pipe in a pipeline control room? Or possibly more to the point, what about combining non-regulated facilities such as compressor stations into a regulated pipeline control room? If you have DOT regulated pipe then the control room must be in compliance with the control room management …
Combining Regulated & Non-Regulated Pipe in a Control Room Read More »
When designing a high performance HMI, the goal is to enable the controller to see an abnormal operating condition prior to reaching an alarm limit. Sounds easy right? Well maybe not. Historically, HMIs have been mostly line drawings and numbers with alarm indicated in a banner. While numbers are critical to diagnostics, they are problematic …
The Department of Transportation inspector general will assess the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s progress in addressing mandates from Congress and recommendations from other agencies over the last decade. The review, announced in a memo today and set to begin this month, follows a February request from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), the ranking member on …
DOT Inspector General to Address PHMSA’s Progress in Addressing Congressional Mandates Read More »
Now that we have been at PHMSA / CRM and Pipeline Alarm Management for a bit over 5 years, we think we are learning a few things. First, it would seem to me that most of the current alarm management software tools on the market were originally developed for plant / process alarm management. …
How Would You Simplify Pipeline Alarm Management? Read More »
There are many challenges with successfully implementing an effective program of pipeline alarm management. Even after you get everyone on the same page with definition and alarm philosophy, you still need to consider where and how to manage alarm configuration. There tends to be two schools of thought. Option 1, manage the alarm in the …
Where Should Alarm Configurations Be Managed: Remote Device or SCADA Host? Read More »
The word Alarm is used in the pipeline business to mean may things. Historically, anything that was annunciated by light, animation, sound or other means has been considered an alarm. Under the PHMSA Control Room Management rule, pipeline operators are required to put in place formal alarm management programs in order to assure that pipeline …
Mobile technology has undoubtedly become an integral part in our day-to-day lives, whether it be in the form of a smartphone or tablet. For the pipeline SCADA world, the roles and risks of mobile technology have yet to be fully uncovered. For example, a controller for one of our customers recently posed this question: “I …
