Integrated RSL Introduction

What: A features is available on RSLs for Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) Critical Equipment (CE), also called Safety Critical Elements (SCE), that acts as hardware barriers for major accident hazards.

The Integrated RSL features involve identification of the HSSE CE Categories on the assurance tasks. This identification provides reference points for assurance tasks during the operate phase and define the function safety requirements.
The tasks are meant to ensure that these HSSE CE will function as intended on demand and enable Assets to:

• Specify their barriers and assurance criteria;
• Determine appropriate equipment strategies for the safety functions; and
• Prevent major accident hazards (MAH) from occurring.

Background

Each barrier in the Swiss cheese model will have its own HSSE CE Category.

Note the barriers are identified by 8 HSSE CE Categories, from 'Structural Integrity' to 'Life Saving'.

HSSE Critical Equipment or Flocs can be marked by the ABC indicator (SAP) or Criticality code (IMS), for example:

Why: Major hazards are identified during 'Hazard and Operability studies' (HAZOP) and developed into the Bowtie models to show the escalation, consequences and barriers which are required to manage the hazards in the industry. All resultant HSSE-CE‘s have their specifications defined to establish integrity with assurance tasks defined for safeguarding the integrity in the operate phase.

The Bowtie model visualizes the role of the barrier in mitigating risks and consequences.