The safe operation of a refinery is unit-wide and should be based on a proper safeguard system. When operational parameters reach unsafe limits, the safeguard system is activated to prevent dangerous situations from happening, by shutting down the concerned equipment or even the entire plant. For a short period of time, the system can still be in operations even when it is trying to avoid unit failures or shutdowns. The safety function can be/has to be inactivated by override switches (MOS: Maintenance Override Switch, POS: Process Override Switch). Every time an override switch status has changed, PI Notifications triggers a subscription and sends the most important information of the event through Web Services into Opralog (electronic shift logbook). This automates the logging of any override status.
To ensure safe operation, it is extremely important to have up-to-date information about the state of the safeguard system: which safety function was inactivated, when and why. This talk will discuss how the old paper-based system was replaced by an electronic format using the PI System, providing up-to-date status of override switch. This new procedure has become the backbone of an event management system which is widely used in the company for various tasks. This initiative has reduced 8kt gas from being burnt in second quarter of 2014, resulting in cost savings of over a million EUR.