(160c) Development, Implementation and Use of a Process Safety Incident Identification and Capture System within a Utility Context

Contact Energy is a New Zealand based electricity and gas utility which owns and operates a range of generation and gas storage & distribution assets including 3 Upper-Tier Major Hazard Facilities (MHFs), 7 Lower-Tier MHFs, 3 “high potential” hydroelectric dams, geothermal production wells, and gas storage & distribution networks.

This Paper will describe:

• how the approach to the identification and classification of Process Safety Incidents set out in API754 was adapted for use within a utility context,
• the process for raising staff awareness of what constitutes a Process Safety Incident and their engagement in identifying and reporting all such incidents,
• how the lower tier minor process safety incident data is used as key learnings with respect to the strength of our process safety controls and barriers,
• the integration of incident lagging indicators within our Process Safety dashboard which also shows, in near real-time, the health of leading process safety indicators (such as maintenance and Management of Change performance).
• the processes established for identifying, and following through on, trends in minor process safety incidents in order to enhance the effectiveness of any controls which are not operating as effectively as intended.

The Paper will also provide examples of how the integration of:

• our “Process Safety Management Framework”,
• the Process Safety Dashboard of KPIs showing the strength of our barriers, and
• Process Safety Incident categorisation,

allows the correlation of leading and lagging information on critical controls and barriers, and a holistic view to be taken of process safety performance and challenges. The governance process for reporting on process safety, including incident data, at various levels within the Company will also be described.