Matured/weathered Refineries and other Hydrocarbon plants at times suffer partial or total site black-out due to a domino effect through tripping of their integrated vital utilities (Cooling Water, Electric Power, Steam, Instrument Air, Fuel-Gas), etc.

As an example, Cooling Water is pumped from various sources comprising a mixed combination of pumps (diesel/electric driven). Electric power required for the pumping of Cooling Water is obtained from different supply sources (municipality and own generation). Instrument air is produced from different sources and different means, required to control the C.W. valves, the generator prime movers etc. Hence vital utilities are mutually required to be produced and controlled.  Integrated Vital Utilities together form a sort of maze handshake. It has been established by Triple EEE staff that if integrity of any single of the identified Integrated Vital Utilities on your multiple plants is lost due to a calamity, a total plant-site black-out is inevitable.

Through time the original integrated plant design criteria are forgotten by operator staff and changed work methods etc. Thus integrity is lost due to plant changes, equipment removals, change in production throughput and manpower re-organizations. These changes are often implemented as ‘improvements’ by short-term economics driven KPI’s of the Plant management team without due cognizance of their plant-wide impact related to the integration of vital utilities serving a multitude of production facilities on the same plot site. In Y2005 alone, a multinational oil company suffered total plant black-outs at 8 refineries worldwide with hundreds of millions USD losses. 

A Triple EEE team is available to review your plants.