Providing specialist safety in design services, E.S.M. assisted a client with a significant upgrade to its Energy Management System (EMS) – the central control system for operating its asset network and data repository for operational decision making.
This was principally an operational technology project, however, it was identified that project implementation could result in potential safety consequences. Therefore, safe design principles were applied to identify and treat hazards.
The project did not fit within the client’s well-established existing SiD process used for the design of field assets and so, E.S.M. was engaged to advise on how to apply SiD principles for this particular project.
E.S.M. worked with the client Project Manager to complete a SiD Impact Assessment and using this, produced a SiD Plan; identifying the responsibilities, activities, documentation and information transfer appropriate for the scale and complexity of the project.
E.S.M. assisted with the implementation of project SiD activities by facilitating two SiD Review Workshops; identifying potential hazards introduced by the project through systematic examination of the human and asset interfaces, with input from stakeholders. The second workshop was successfully delivered online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The SiD Review workshops identified several hazards and previously overlooked issues requiring action to help ensure safe implementation of the system.
