
Operation and Maintenance requirements of bulk LP storage facilities
All bulk plants, industrial plants, marine terminals, refrigerated, and pipeline systems are required to have written operating and maintenance instructions. This is, in depth, detailed instructions on the ACTUAL operating procedures of each specific plant. The instructions should be written in such a way as fire fighters or other personnel not associated with the plant could utilize them. Operating instructions need to include; safety inspection procedures, start up, shut down, loading, unloading, incident procedures, and any other site specific information needed for the safe operation and/or shut down of the facility in the event of an emergency. Maintenance procedures need to include; manuals for all equipment, preventative maintenance schedules, back check, ESV inspection reports, and fire extinguisher maintenance schedules.
These documents need to be located at the plant they were written for. If the plant is an unattended plant, they may be kept at the overseeing plant location, and must be available to operators, contractors, and inspectors. It is required that the documents are kept current, and kept for the life of the plant they describe.
As we all know maintenance is the key to keeping our equipment in good, safe running order. Practicing good industry standards, we have always kept our owner's manuals handy for our vehicles, pumps, vaporizers, and gas appliances. When you read past all the, what not to dos, we find all the important information that pertains to that specific piece of equipment. Much of what the code is requiring us to do is already being done. We all grease the pumps, check our fire extinguishers regularly, and check our remote shutdown stations and ESVs for correct operation, the code is telling us to do what we have already been doing, now it needs to be documented, and correct operating instructions need to be given, so that it is continued to be performed to the same standards, consistently, throughout the life of the equipment and the facility.
The PERC web site www.propanecouncil.org has an operations and maintenance template that can be used, find it under the compliance tab.
Comments