Alarm management lessons not learnt, warns ABB 06 November 2013

Control rooms over-burdened with alarm systems continue to be ineffective in mitigating plant problems in emergency situations, according to a leading industry expert.

Joan Evans, a principal consultant in safety at ABB Consulting, says there is an industry-wide struggle to apply alarm management learning from previous major disasters.

Evans has recently examined a timeline of cases where poor alarm management has featured in significant environmental incidents, financial problems and, most worryingly, the loss of life.

Evans contrasts the Texaco Milford Haven incident in 1994, where the HSE investigation raised the excessive number of alarms as an issue, and 15 years later Maersk Ngujima-Yin in 2009, where the DMA reported an alarm overloads in the control room.

"Effective alarm management should help prevent these incidents," states Evans.

"Automation systems over-burdened with alarms that are not appropriately prioritised are frequently no better than a noisy distraction," he continues.

"In some cases, [they] reduce the effectiveness of operator response in emergency situations."

Evans believes that the forthcoming legislation and the media spotlight are also raising the stakes. The EU's Seveso III Directive, coming into force in 2015, is the first primary EU legislation specifically to cover alarm management.

"We see the same issues happening again and again. Mistakes ought to be learnt from and should trigger improvement. They should not be repeated. We need to get this message across to avoid issues in the future," insists Evans.

Brian Tinham

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