New Control Room Management Regulations Require Structured Management Approach

On Dec. 3, 2009, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published its final regulations for control room management (CRM). These regulations were the result of a multi-year effort to address concerns expressed by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) related to human factor issues in pipeline control rooms and in response to specific requirements in the PIPES Act of 2006 that required PHMSA to have pipeline operators establish a human factors management plan that reduces risks, including fatigue for control room operators.

Industry participated actively in the rulemaking process and the final regulations are seen by many in industry to be a reasonable approach to addressing these issues. Operators must develop a CRM plan by Aug. 1, 2011 and implement that plan by Feb. 1, 2013 (the Dec. 3, 2009 rule had an implementation deadline of Feb.1, 2012, but PHMSA has since indicated that the correct implementation deadline is 2013, not 2012).

In the preamble to the rulemaking, PHMSA succinctly stated the purpose and scope of the rulemaking:

“PHMSA is amending the Federal pipeline safety regulations to address human factors and other aspects of control room management for pipelines where controllers use supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems. Under the final rule, affected pipeline operators must define the roles and responsibilities of controllers and provide controllers with the necessary information, training and processes to fulfill these responsibilities. Operators must also implement methods to prevent controller fatigue. The final rule further requires operators to manage SCADA alarms, assure control room considerations are taken into account when changing pipeline equipment or configurations and review reportable incidents or accidents to determine whether control room actions contributed to the event.”

This article summarizes the requirements in the rulemaking and describes some of the industry’s initiatives related to this rulemaking. It also describes the applicability of the regulation to various types of facilities and notes key differences in the rules for gas pipelines versus liquid pipelines.

Applicability And Definitions
As with all rulemakings, the devil is in the details, especially when it comes to the applicability section, which depends heavily on the definitions section.

According to the rule:
“This section applies to each operator of a pipeline facility with a controller working in a control room who monitors and controls all or part of a pipeline facility through a SCADA system.”

In the pipeline safety regulations, the “operator of a pipeline facility” refers to the company that operates the pipeline. Thus, the regulation applies to the pipeline operating company. The controller is not the operator.

Controller is defined as a qualified individual who remotely monitors and controls the safety-related operations of a pipeline facility via a SCADA system from a control room and who has operational authority and accountability for the remote operational functions of the pipeline facility.

Control room is defined as an operations center staffed by personnel charged with the responsibility for remotely monitoring and controlling a pipeline facility.