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Commissioning

Commissioning of the installation starts at the very beginning of the project with the placement of orders detailing the projects testing and commissioning regime. The appointment of the overseeing commissioning manager is also crucial, as is the preparation of the commissioning programme starting with factory tests and running in a clear logical sequence through to IST.

Off site testing is the best way to ensure that the equipment ordered has the ability to fulfil the site requirements. If it is not able to work to the correct limits in the factory environment, it will not be able to perform any better when it arrives on site. For certain projects involving multiple systems or new arrangements it can be well worth spending the additional monies required to set up full system tests at the factory. This testing and proving will enable any issues to be addressed before the equipment leaves the factory, saving valuable time on site.

The interconnecting systems of cable, pipe work and bus bar will all be tested to ensure their installation has been fully successful and that they are ready to be used in a live situation, when the plant is turned on for the first time. The documentation for each system will be complied and signed off before use.

Once each installation is complete and the various elements have been tested, they require powering up and commissioning. At this time, care is to be taken to ensure that no one is exposed to the new system until it has been successfully started, run up and proved safe. Even then, only the people trained and certified for the system in question are allowed to carry out the checks to ensure that all is well. Each system can then be fully commissioned in line with the design parameters and signed off as complete and functioning correctly.

The final phase of the commissioning process is getting the various systems to work as one. The interconnection is activated and we prove that the systems talk to each other and operate as intended by the design. This is where a team well versed in this type of installation can be invaluable, sorting out of the inevitable issues that arise when the various systems are combined. The culmination of this is the Integrated Systems Test (IST) when the building is run through multiple scenarios, to test the installed systems to their limits and show the full resilience of the whole installation that ultimately supports the client’s business platform.