INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEM ENGINEERING

Alarm Rationalization in Oil & Gas: Reducing Nuisance Alarms

Client

Key Activities

Industry

Problem: Major Oil and Gas producer faced operational challenges from excessive nuisance alarms and callouts, leading to operator fatigue, inefficiency, and safety risks within their SCADA system.

The client was facing significant operational challenges due to a high volume of nuisance alarms and frequent callouts within their SCADA system. These alarms were leading to operator fatigue, reduced efficiency, and potential safety risks.

  • Nuisance Alarms: The SCADA system was overwhelmed with nuisance alarms, causing alarm floods and repetitive nuisance alarms that diluted the effectiveness of critical alarms.
  • Operator Fatigue: The high volume of non-essential alarms led to operator desensitization, increasing the risk of missing important alerts.
  • Compliance and Safety Risks: Without an effective alarm management system, the company faced challenges in maintaining compliance with ISA 18.2 standards, potentially jeopardizing both safety and compliance.

Solution: This client partnered with MAC to enhance alarm management and compliance

Facing the pressing need to improve their alarm management, the client partnered with MAC MAC Automation to implement a cutting-edge solution. This initiative focused on utilizing proprietary tools developed by MAC to identify nuisance alarms, rationalize existing alarms, and get in line with industry standards.

Project objectives:

  • To reduce the number of nuisance alarms and enhance the overall efficiency of our client’s SCADA system by integrating advanced alarm management tools.

Project execution

To address the challenges our client faced with their SCADA system, MAC deployed two advanced, proprietary tools designed to optimize alarm management and ensure compliance with industry standards.

  • Alarm Visualization and KPI Tool: MAC Automation deployed a proprietary tool that integrated directly with our client’s SCADA system. This tool analyzed existing alarm statistics to visually and analytically identify issues such as alarm floods, chattering, nuisance, and misconfigured alarms. By using this tool, our client was able to rationalize alarms and reduce nuisance alarms by 60%. The tool’s vendor-agnostic design ensured it could be easily adapted to various SCADA systems, while its graphical data representation enabled quick identification and resolution of alarm-related issues.
  • Master Alarm Database: MAC Engineering also  implemented a proprietary Master Alarm Database that interfaces directly with CygNet. This tool automated the auditing process of alarm configurations, managed discrepancies, and maintained change records in adherence to ISA 18.2 standards. Our client leveraged this tool to streamline the management of their master alarm records, ensuring that all changes were tracked, and discrepancies were automatically flagged and addressed. Designed to be compatible with various SCADA systems, the tool offers flexibility for future expansions and continued system efficiency.

Through the deployment of these tools, MAC Engineering and MAC Automation provided our client with a robust solution that not only improved alarm management but also ensured long-term compliance and operational efficiency.

Outcome

Through the collaboration between MAC and our client, the project successfully achieved the following outcomes:

  • Reduction in Nuisance Alarms: The project resulted in a 60% reduction in nuisance alarms daily, significantly decreasing operator fatigue and improving overall system efficiency.
    • Average Alarms/day before – 2081
    • Alarms/day after – 875
  • Enhanced Compliance: The integration of the Master Alarm Database ensured that our client’s alarm management process met ISA 18.2 standards, providing a robust framework for maintaining compliance.
  • Improved Operational Efficiency: By streamlining the alarm management process and reducing the number of unnecessary alarms, our client was able to focus more on critical operations, leading to increased productivity and safety.
Contents