An industrial facility and a city itself there is not much difference. We need streets, control of traffic, vehicle, pedestrians, buildings, water, electricity, piping, units, blocks, functional units, authorities, control and many more.

A city is a human settlement of notable size. It can be defined as a permanent and densely settled place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks.Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organisations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving efficiency of goods and service distribution.

A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufactureitems or operate machines which process each item into another. They are a critical part of modern economic production, with the majority of the world's goods being created or processed within factories.

The complExity in terms of a hazardous area project shows itself (let us try to make it simple):
- URS (user requirement specification) shall introduce the basic approach and the way forward
- EDC (Ex design chapter) shall define the basics such as description of technology and HAC (hazardous area classification). Here we shall define the EPL (equipment protection level), which shall be the input date for all other discciplines (electrical, mechanical, ...) to select the right installations
- EDC shall be updated as project starts to proceed
- final EDC shall be combined with the VD (Verification Dossier)

• SITE
  – area classification documents (see IEC 60079-10-1 and IEC 60079-10-2) with plans showing the classification and extent of the hazardous areas including the zoning (and maximum permissible dust layer thickness if the hazard is due to dust);
  – optional assessment of consequences of ignition;
  – where applicable, gas, vapour or dust classification in relation to the group or subgroup of the electrical equipment;
  – temperature class or ignition temperature of the gas or vapour involved;
  – where applicable, the material characteristics including electrical resistivity, the minimum ignition temperature of the dust cloud, minimum ignition temperature of the dust layer and minimum ignition energy of the dust cloud;
  – external influences and ambient temperature.
  
• EQUIPMENT
  – manufacturer's instructions for selection, installation and initial inspection;
  – documents for electrical equipment with conditions of use, e.g. for equipment with
  certificate numbers which have the suffix "X";
  – descriptive system document for the intrinsically safe system;
  – details of any relevant calculation, e.g. for purging rates for instruments or analyser
  houses;
  – manufacturer's/qualified person's declaration.
  Consideration should be given to obtaining information for maintenance and repair to meet the
  requirements of IEC 60079-17 and IEC 60079-19 respectively.
  
• INSTALLATION
  – necessary information to ensure correct installation of the equipment provided in a form
  which is suitable to the personnel responsible for this activity (see IEC 60079-0,
  Instructions);
  – documentation relating to the suitability of the equipment for the area and environment to
  which it will be exposed, e.g. temperature ratings, type of protection, IP rating, corrosion
  resistance;
  – the plans showing types and details of wiring systems;
  – records of selection criteria for cable entry systems for compliance with the requirements
  for the particular type of protection;
  – drawings and schedules relating to circuit identification;
  – records of the initial inspection.
  – installer's/qualified person's declaration.
  
  NOTE Records of inspection for assemblies or pre-installed items can be accepted as part of initial inspection records.

- and so after all required inspection including Ex detailed one the operation itself can be started
- in EU an EPD (explosion protection documentation) shall be made ready for the time of operation and kept up-to-date. All employees shall be trained accordingly.
- for all above the Ex personal competency and its continuity shall be the responsibility of employer (for all vendors too) and it has to be well documented (proof of evidence)
- Assessment of Ex personnel competency
The competency of responsible persons, operatives and designers shall be verified and attributed, at intervals relevant to national regulations or standards or user requirements, on the basis of sufficient evidence that the person:
a) has the necessary skills required for the scope of work;
b) can act competently across the specified range of activities; and
c) has the relevant knowledge and understanding underpinning competency.

We can understand it is a complEx job to do. Responsibility is there for all steps for the total lifetime of site including design stage, but installation and commissioning as well. This responsibility has to be delegated and well documented (here it is true again the proof of evidence shall be one the paper and approved by Ex professionals).

Ex owner's engineering can support this procedure as a milestone based mission in order to represent the owner's interest (as many projects have shown already the concept of Ex owner's engineering works and effective).

simplExcity

It is an initiative to show to all Ex hazardous industry players the possible approach how it works and how it can ease/secure the life of industry professionals.

Documentation and Ex personnel competency is the keypoint. Ex side of knowledge shall be with the owner and with EPC (incl vendors) at the same time. All Ex properties and informations shall be with the project as soon as possible. HAC and EPL shall be subject of change as per project requirement. The design stage shall be the lead in connection with the project itself (there shall be no surprise at the end of the day). An Explosion Design Chapter shall include all these crucial details and follow the total lifetime of project phase and result in a possible outcome of an explosion protection document, which shall act as the script of Ex safe operation in a possible Ex hazardous environment. The basic details are given as per URS, the main lead of EDC shall be with the designer team. Any discipline of engineering (design) such electrical / mechanical / ... can act based on this (focal point). An EDC is not a constant doc, updates as per project lifecycle are required.

Milestons to set as per requirements at the point of start-up and it works.

Each project is different, still main steps are easy to identify: URS - EDC - HAC - EPL - design stage - update of EDC - selection of installations - installation - update of EDC - inspections - commissioning - EPD - start up - operation - maintenance - repair (continuous update of EPD in case of any modification related to Ex). Highlight shall be on the documentation and Ex personnel competency.

Keep up the good work!

Arpad
veress@exprofessional.com
exprofessional.com