71
Guidelines for Process Plants Alarm
Grouping & Alarm Prioritization
Praveen Nagenderan C
1.0 IMPORTANCE OF ALARM SYSTEM
Alarm systems are increasingly important in
the safe management of plant and machinery.
Alarm systems forms an essential part of the
operator interface which provides vital support
to the operator by warning them of situation
that need their attention. Alarm systems thus
have an important role in preventing, control-
ling and mitigating the effects of abnormal sit-
uations. The effects can be very serious if
these alarm systems does not work well.
Alarm systems are a very important way of
automatically monitoring the plant condition
and attracting the attention of the process
plant operator to significant changes that re-
quire assessment or action. They help the op-
erator to maintain the plant within a safe oper-
ating envelope. A good alarm system helps
the operator to correct potentially dangerous
situations before the Emergency Shutdown
(ESD) system is forced to intervene. This im-
proves plant availability, helps to recognize
and act to avoid hazardous situations, helps to
identify deviations from desired operating con-
ditions that could lead to financial loss and
helps to understand complex process condi-
tions. Alarms should be an important diagnos-
tic tool and are one of several sources that an
operator uses during an upset. Alarms are sig-
nals which are annunciated to the operator,
typically by an audible sound, some form of
visual indication, usually flashing, and by the
presentation of a message or some other
identifier. An alarm will indicate a problem re-
quiring operator attention, and is generally ini-
tiated by a process measurement passing a
defined alarm setting as it approaches an un-
desirable or potentially unsafe value. Alarm
Management helps to identify process prob-
lems like valves / equipment & instruments
malfunction and controller tuning problems,
reduces unplanned down time of plant, reduc-
es production losses, prevents incidents, im-
proved productivity – both equipment’s and
personnel’s. Alarm systems should be de-
signed to meet user needs and operate within
the operator's capabilities. This means that the
information alarm systems present should be
relevant to the operator’s role at the time, indi-
cate clearly what response is required, be
presented at a rate that the operator can deal
with, be easy to understand.
2.0 ALARM GROUPING
Alarm grouping is one of the important theo-
ries in the plant alarm management system
where the alarms configured are to be
grouped into different categories. All alarms
which are configured in the system should be
specified with a group name. The alarm
grouping activity later supports alarm rational-
ization activity as well significantly for analy-
sis.
2.1 GENERAL GUIDELINES
 Instrument tags related to process which
are configured with alarms are to be pro-
vided with the group name with respect to
the respective defined process areas.
These alarms are commonly called as
“PROCESS ALARM”.
 Safety systems related alarms shall be
provided with the group name of
“SAFETY”.
 Equipment start/stop related alarms shall
be provided with a group name of
“EQUIPMENT”.
 Shut down valves, Blow down valves and
Control valves related alarms shall be
provided with a group name of “VALVES”.
 DCS or PLC system related and Commu-
nications related alarms shall be provided
with group name of “SYSTEM”.
 Electrical switch gear related alarms shall
be provided with group name of
“ELECTRICAL”.
3.0 ALARM PRIORITY
Alarm priority is used to aid the operator de-
termining the order in which to respond to
alarms. Effective prioritization typically results
in higher priorities chosen less frequently
than lower priorities. Most of the alarms
should be assigned to the lowest alarm priori-
ty (least important) and the fewest to the
highest alarm priority (most important) with
the consistent transition between the two.
The resulting priorities should have alignment
with the consequence and allowable re-
sponse time such that the lowest priority
 72

alarms have the least severe consequence which are having direct relation to the to-
and longest allowable response time and the tal plant trip or respective valve closure /
highest priority alarms have the most severe open status which gives very less re-
consequence (Example: Fire and Gas system sponse time for operator to take action
alarms) and the shortest allowable response can be considered for “CRITICAL”.
time.  Instrument tags which are configured with
alarms which performs remote operation
3.1 GENERAL GUIDELINES i.e. operation performed by operator to be
All alarms configured in the system will be pri- considered for “LOW” class.
oritized based on the class names.  Characteristically all bad PV (Process
Value) alarm shall be configured with low
 Facility shall generally use four classes for priority except for the points/tags with high
process related alarms and one class for priority alarm where bad PV shall also be
system related alarms. assigned high priority.
 Alarms which are grouped under SYSTEM  As per HAZOP study report, Alarms listed
should be classified as “SYSTEM”. as safeguards measures or recommenda-
 Other alarms which are grouped under tion shall be assigned with priority as de-
different names as per the alarm groups fined by the severity consequence matrix.
guidelines as specified above are to be
classified as “CRITICAL”, “HIGH”, 4.0 REFERENCES
“MEDIUM” and “LOW”. ANSI/ISA-18.2.2016 Management of Alarm
 Priority distribution of the process related Systems for the process industries
alarms class shall be: CRITICAL: 5%,
HIGH: 15%, MEDIUM: 30% and LOW: EEMUA PUBLICATIOn No.191 Edition 2
50%. (Determination of priority percentage Alarm Systems A Guide to Design, Manage-
is a case dependent activity with respect to ment and Procurement
the respective process industry/plant. Gen-
eral percentage which works and practical- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ly possible to implement were suggested
here).
 Alarms which are critical to process safety
of the protection of human life or personnel
safety protection by default are to be con-
sidered for “CRITICAL” priority class.
 Alarms for commercial loss or product
quality shall be considered for “CRITICAL” Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-
priority class. neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
 Instrument tags which are configured with production & processing facilities and Refin-
alarms having direct relation to the total ery process units. Professional experience
plant trip or a section trip shall be consid- covers in Production operations, Facility sur-
ered for “CRITICAL” priority class. veillance, Technical safety, Technical Ser-
 Instrument tags which are configured with vices - Process, and Projects. Praveen has
alarms which affects the section of the worked with major Oil & Gas companies in
plant but provides relative response time India namely Nayara Energy formerly known
to the operator or which doesn’t trigger as Essar Oil Limited and Cairn Oil & Gas.
total plant shut down immediately shall be
considered for “HIGH” priority class.
 Equipment stop related alarms shall be
considered for “HIGH” class based on the
criticality of the equipment with respect to
the process conditions whereas equipment
start related alarms shall be considered for
“LOW” class based on the criticality of the
equipment with respect to the process
conditions.
 Alarm priority class for Shutdown valves or
solenoid valve status alarms to be decided
based on the criticality of the process con-
ditions. Shutdown vales or solenoid valve
status feedback CLOSE/OPEN alarms

Alarm Management: Guidelines for the
composition of Alarm Message display in
Human Machine Interface and Highly
Managed Alarms
Praveen Nagenderan C
ALARM MESSAGE COMPOSITION
Alarm Messages are text strings typically dis-
played alongside the alarm indication in alarm
displays of Human Machine Interface (HMI).
Operators very often rely on the alarm mes-
sage and the text description of the alarm. It is
essential to provide well-thought-out messag-
es that are easily understandable and con-
sistent in the format given the text and charac-
ter limitations of the system to help the opera-
tor diagnose the anomaly and formulate a
timely response,
 The alarm message should identify the
condition that has occurred in the process.
 The alarm message shouldn't duplicate
other information provided by other dis-
played fields such as alarm priority, tag
name, or alarm type.
 The alarm message should contain terms
that the operators are familiar
 The alarm message should contain con-
sistent abbreviations from a standard dic-
tionary for abbreviations in case of charac-
ter limitations. Abbreviations to be used to
be in line with the company's defined and
approved internal alarm management pro-
cedure.
 The alarm message should contain the text
description of the device or equipment.
 The alarm message should contain Tag
number of the equipment followed after the
tag description.
 The Alarm message text size should be
readable from the operator's ergonomically
normal position.
 The alarm message display should have a
defined background color and different text
colors for the internally defined alarm prior-
ities.
 Below guidelines for the color are general-
ized recommendations for field implemen-
tation; the onus lies with the plant opera-
tions group to decide based on the human
engineering factors and provisional system
limitations
 "CRITICAL" priority class alarm
message text color shall be indicat-
ed in the "RED" color.
31
 "HIGH" priority class alarm mes-
sage text color shall be indicated
in the "YELLOW" color.
 "MEDIUM" priority class alarm
message text color shall be indi-
cated in the "MAGENTA" color.
 "LOW" priority class alarm mes-
sage text color shall be indicated
in "GREEN" color.
 "SYSTEM" priority class alarm
message text color shall be indi-
cated in "BLUE" color.
 The background color of the text
display is to be indicated in
"BLACK" color.
 A unique symbol (Example: Shape or
Text) should be used to indicate each
alarm priority to reinforce color coding.
 A distinctly audible indication to be used
for each alarm priority.
 Apart from the alarm summary list, the
alarm shall also be indicated in HMI
graphics in the form of flicking or in the
form of color or text indication.
 Plant Operations group to suggest the
alarm message composition for system
implementation to the Instrumentation de-
partment of the plant.
 The plant operations group to review the
alarms message composition in line with
the defined internal company procedures
for the new and planned brown-field pro-
jects.
 Plant Operations group to suggest alarm
message composition for any new alarm
requirement in the running process plant
through the internal Alarm rationalization
process – Change/New request form to
the plant Instrumentation department who
then implements in the system and rec-
ords accordingly.
 System/Instrument Engineer shall be re-
sponsible for implementation as per the
request form.
 System/Instrument Engineer shall ensure
and maintain the system by checking the
message composition by the defined
guidelines before field implementation.
 32

HIGHLY MANAGED ALARM

Highly managed alarms are classes of alarms
that require more attention from the operator
and also require more administration & docu-
mentation than other class alarms. All alarms
that come under the Alarm priority class of
"CRITICAL" shall be considered "Highly Man-
aged Alarms." Other alarm priority classes can
also be considered for the HMA category if it
falls under the below-mentioned criteria.

Below mentioned criteria to be used for defin-

ing Highly Managed Alarm class:
 Alarms which are critical to process safety
of the protection of human life
 Alarms for personnel safety or protection.
 Alarms for environmental protection
 Alarms for commercial loss
 Alarms for product quality
 Alarms which are defined as critical by pro-
cess licensor
 Alarms which are defined as critical as per
company policy

All identified HMA alarms should have ap-

proved written procedures on causes for the
alarm annunciation, operator action on alarm
annunciation, communication hierarchy on an-
nunciation of alarm, and consequences of in-
action by the operator.

REFERENCES
ANSI/ISA 18.2 Management of alarm systems
for the process industries

EEMUA 191 Publication "Alarm Systems – A

guide to Design, Management, and Procure-
ment.

AUTHOR

Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-

neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
production & processing facilities and Refinery
process units. Professional experience covers
Production operations, Facility surveillance,
Technical safety, Technical Services - Pro-
cess, and Projects. Praveen has worked with
major Oil & Gas companies in India, namely
Nayara Energy, formerly known as Essar Oil
Limited, Cairn Oil & Gas, and Expro North Sea
Limited.

Brief on the Process of Carrying Out Alarm
Rationalization in the Process Plant
Praveen Nagenderan C
Rationalization encompasses several signifi-
cant activities, including alarm justification,
documentation, prioritization, and classifica-
tion. In justification, existing or potential alarms
are systematically compared to the criteria for
alarms outlined in the alarm philosophy. If the
proposed alarm meets the criteria, then the
alarm type, setpoint, cause, consequence, and
operator action are documented. The alarm is
prioritized and classified according to the
guidelines. Classification encompasses as-
signing alarms to a group defining certain ad-
ministrative requirements. These activities are
combined into a single rationalization activity.
The objective of Rationalization is to ensure
that every alarm is an indication of an abnor-
mal condition requiring operator response and
that every abnormal condition requiring opera-
tor action is appropriately alarmed.
 The facility should perform rationalization
for all their existing configured alarms once
a year.
 Signed off Alarm philosophy document to
be in place as a prerequisite to start alarm
rationalization process.
 Train rationalization Team: Before the
commencement of the actual rationaliza-
tion sessions, it is mandatory to conduct a
brief training session on alarm rationaliza-
tion to all likely participants. Training ses-
sions should include the objectives and
goals of the rationalization, actual process
to be used during the sessions to be clear-
ly explained which includes an explanation
on existing and documented alarm philoso-
phy, how the needs for the alarms are de-
termined, how alarms are prioritized.
 Identify Team/Personnel: Rationalization
should be performed by representatives
with the knowledge and skills of process
engineering, operations, process control,
and experienced alarm rationalization facil-
itator, knowledge in alarm management
principles and practices (optional). Scribe
to be appointed for the rationalization pro-
cess.
 The team should be supplemented with the
skill set of safety and environment, mainte-
nance/equipment reliability, electrical and
39
rotating equipment engineers, metallurgy,
knowledge of product quality require-
ments.
 Master Alarm Database summary list
should be in place before starting the ra-
tionalization process.
 Results of rationalization should be docu-
mented and responsibility lies with Sys-
tem/Instrument Engineer to take up the
job of implementation.
 Operational details of the process are
needed including normal process varia-
bles and their tolerable limits.
 Major reference documents are typically
used for rationalization include P&ID,
PHA report, HAZOP reports, FMEA re-
ports, LOPA reports and safety require-
ments specifications, safe operating lim-
its, equipment’s design parameters, C&E
charts, environmental permits, production
targets, quality targets, key operating pro-
cedures, HMI graphics, incident reports,
access to processing historical data, pro-
cess narrative or description and manu-
facture/licensor alarm recommendations.
All the mentioned documents should be
collected and in place while carrying out
the rationalization process.
 Kick-off Meeting: A kick-off meeting ses-
sion is used to acquaint management and
all other interested parties as to the rea-
sons for, method, and potential results of
the rationalization process. Content
should also include detailing the basis of
alarm rationalization, as well as examples
of past rationalization that will assist the
group in understanding the overall intent
of the effort. Requirements for participa-
tion by the specialist can be discussed if
any special assistance is sought for the
process.
 Roles and Responsibilities for the partici-
pants to be clearly explained and docu-
mented.
 Expectations of daily progress and overall
effort duration should be set ahead of the
rationalization session.
 Before starting the process, read out key
items of the alarm philosophy related to
the rationalization process to the partici-
pants.
 40

 Every existing and proposed alarm is re-  Alarm Type

viewed to ensure that it meets the basic  Alarm Priority
requirements for an alarm such as the  Alarm Class
alarm indicates a malfunction, deviation, or  Alarm Set Point or Logical conditions
abnormal situation, the alarm represents a  Operator Action in case of Highly Man-
situation requiring timely operator action in aged Alarm category
 order to avoid defined consequences, the  The consequence of action in the case of
alarm is the best indicator of the cause of the Highly Managed Alarm category
the abnormal situation i.e multiple alarms  Probable Cause
from the same condition should be avoid-  Alarm Identification Method
ed. Conditions can be assessed and com-  Requirement of advanced alarming tech-
pared with the existing alarm response pro- niques
cedure.  The rationale of Setpoint
 When the validity check indicates an exist-
ing alarm is not needed, the rationale for REFERENCES
deletion is documented.
 In case of a new alarm requirement, ANSI/ISA 18.2 Management of alarm sys-
1. Document the immediate and proxi- tems for the process industries
mate consequences of insufficient oper- EEMUA 191 Publication “Alarm Systems – A
ator response to the alarm. The conse- guide to Design, Management, and Procure-
quence should assume the condition ment.
alarmed continues or gets worse.
2.Document the likely root cause of the AUTHOR
process condition that would result in
the alarm. The list of events should ei-
ther be the likely events that this alarm
is to identify or something unique about
this alarm versus all others. Not every
cause needs to be documented.
3.Document the operator actions to take
Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-
in response to the alarm. The actions neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
should be objective using action verbs production & processing facilities and Refin-
like start/stop or raise, lower or open, ery process units. Professional experience
close. The actions can either be through covers Production operations, Facility surveil-
the control system, through action in the lance, Technical safety, Technical Services -
field accomplished by the operator re- Process, and Projects. Praveen has worked
ceiving the alarm, through instruction to with major Oil & Gas companies in India
field personnel, or consultation with oth- namely Nayara Energy formerly known as
ers. Essar Oil Limited, Cairn Oil & Ga, and Expro
 Assign alarm priority as per the guidelines North Sea Limited.
 Determine alarm setpoint or logical condi-
tion
 Assess need for special handling for the
alarm and specify the needs
 Requirements of alarm shelving to be as-
sessed and mentioned.
 Assign classes and groups as per the
guidelines provided in section
 In case of an existing alarm, the above-
mentioned points shall be reviewed by the
team. In case of any changes, amend and
document the changes reviewed by the
team.
The general activities of rationalization are
Alarm Justification, Alarm Setpoint Determina-
tion, Alarm Prioritization, Alarm Classification,
and Rationalization Review. Hence, Alarm ra-
tionalization shall determine and document the
following for every alarm:

Key Performance Indicators and
Performance Report Criteria for Process
Plant Alarm Management System
Praveen Nagenderan C
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
It is necessary to define a set of quantitative
key performance indicators (KPIs) to define
performance levels for an alarm system. Two
categories of data in a typical alarm system
are Alarm records (i.e. dynamic or real-time
data) and alarm attributes. Both categories are
valuable in alarm system performance meas-
urement and are subject to different analyses.
Alarm records contain alarm-related infor-
mation and are produced by the system when
an alarm occurs. Alarm attributes make up the
underlying structure which is necessary so that
alarm records are produced, including alarm
types, alarm setpoints, alarm priorities, dead
bands, and similar items. All KPIs should be
evaluated and compared with both industry
standards and site set metrics. The site shall
set its metrics for continual improvement to-
wards the industry standards. Instrument Man-
ager to fix site metrics every month based on
the previous month's alarm system perfor-
mance and considering continual improvement
towards the industry standards.
1.) Average Alarm Rate:
Analysis of alarm rate i.e annunciated alarm
rate is a good indicator of the overall health of
the alarm system. Records should be analyzed
every 15 days to analyze the alarm system
performance. 6 Alarms per hour (Average) or 1
Alarm per 10 mins (Average) are very likely to
be acceptable whereas 12 Alarms per hour
(Average) or 2 Alarms per 10 min (Average)
are maximumly manageable as per EEMUA
191 and ISA 18.2 standards.
2.) Peak Alarm Rate:
Alarm rates can exceed the operator capability
for effective alarm response and result in
missed alarms. For peak alarm rate analysis,
annunciated alarms are counted in regular 10-
minute intervals. The recommended target is
less than 1% of the 10-minute interval should
contain more than 10 alarms. The number of
intervals exceeding 10 alarms and the magni-
tude of the highest peaks should be reported.
3.) Number of Alarm Floods:
Alarm floods are variable duration periods of
alarm activity with annunciation rates likely to
19
exceed operator response capability. Alarm
flood calculations involve the determination of
adjacent time periods where the alarm rate is
high thus producing an overall flood event.
The start of an alarm flood is indicated by a
high alarm rate (Example: An alarm rate that
exceeds 10 alarms per 10 minutes) and the
end of an alarm flood is indicated by a return
to reduced alarm rate. (Example: An alarm
rate of fewer than 5 alarms per 10 minutes).
Recommended target is an alarm system that
should be in flood for less than ~1% of the
time. Improvements to the alarm system and
process operation may be indicated by the
analysis of alarm floods. Analysis should in-
clude the Number of alarm floods, Duration of
each alarm flood, Alarm count in each alarm
flood, and Peak alarm rate for each alarm
flood
4.) Frequently occurring alarms:
Relatively few individual alarms often produce
a large percentage of the total alarm system
load. The most frequent alarms should be
identified from the alarm history for a period
of days and to be analyzed for improvement.
Alarms that contribute more than 20% of the
total alarm rate are to be considered as
“Frequently occurring alarms”. Action plan to
be set at the review meeting for the identified
“Frequently occurring alarms”.
5.) Stale Alarms:
Alarms that remain annunciated continuously
for an extended duration i.e 24 hours can be
considered as “Stale Alarms”. Identified stale
alarms should be review at the review meet-
ing and an appropriate action plan to be set
to avoid stale alarms. The target rate is less
than 5 % of total alarms annunciated on any
day with an action plan to address.
6.) Annunciated Alarm Priority Distribution:
Effective use of alarm priority can enhance
the ability of the operator to manage alarms
and provide a response. The total number of
alarms annunciated per priority to be taken
and analyzed for improvement. Alarms an-
nunciated priority distribution shall be ~80%
for Low class, ~15% Medium, ~5% High, and
~1% Critical. These priority distributions are
 20

applicable for the only process-related alarm  Chattering Alarms (Daily Analysis)
and its defined classes. Other categories are
 Details of System alarms (Daily Analysis)
excluded from the analysis.
7.) Number of Alarm occurrences for a partic-  Alarms setpoint changes
ular group of systems:  Alarm group changes
Each alarm configured in the system is to be  Alarms priority changes
provided with a group name. The number of
alarm occurrences for a particular group of  Details of Alarm rationalization taken up
systems to be identified from the daily list of  Review meetings outcome
annunciated alarm lists.
 Progress against the resolution of an iden-
8.) Number of Chattering and Fleeting Alarms: tified nuisance alarm list
Chattering alarm repeatedly transitions be-  Action plans to improve performance com-
tween the active state and the not active state pared to KPIs and progress of those
in a short period. Fleeting alarms are similar plans
short-duration alarms that do not immediately
repeat. In both cases, the transition is not due AUTHOR
to the result of operator action. A chattering
alarm can generate hundreds or thousands of
records in a few hours. This results in a signif-
icant distraction for the operators. Chattering
alarms are often high in the listing of the most
frequent alarms. Target performance ac-
ceptance criteria are there is a no-term ac- Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-
ceptable quantity of chattering or fleeting neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
alarms. production & processing facilities and Refinery
process units. Professional experience covers
PERFORMANCE REPORT
Production operations, Facility surveillance,
Generation of performance reports provides Technical safety, Technical Services - Pro-
an accurate picture of the alarm system per- cess, and Projects. Praveen has worked with
formance. The facility shall generate alarm major Oil & Gas companies in India namely
system performance report monthly apart Nayara Energy formerly known as Essar Oil
from the bi-weekly review meetings on the Limited and Cairn Oil & Gas.
alarm system. Monthly alarm system perfor-
mance report to be generated by System/
Instrument Engineer.
 An alarm system performance report
should include the below-mentioned items:
 Alarm rates (Daily analysis)
 Peak Alarm Rate (Daily analysis)
 Percentage of time when the alarm sys-
tem is in flood condition (Daily analysis)
 Frequently occurring alarms (Daily Analy-
sis)
 Annunciated Alarm priority distribution
percentage (Daily Analysis)
 Alarms Suppressed by the operator (Daily
Analysis)
 List of shelved alarms with duration (Daily
Analysis)
 List of out-of-service alarms with duration
(Daily Analysis)
 Stale Alarms (Daily Analysis)
 41

Guidelines for Alarm Identification

Methods & Training Content for Alarm
Management Systems
Praveen Nagenderan C
ALARM IDENTIFICATION METHODS  Process variable or plant status
Alarms may be identified by a range of good changes that
engineering practices or regulatory require-  Do not require operator attention
ments. Some combination of identification
methods can also be used to determine poten-  Events that are recorded in an alarm/
tial alarms. event log, but which operator does not
need to see
 Below are recommended identification  Signals which confirm successful op-
methods to be used to determine alarm: erator action
 Signals which duplicate another alarm
 Process Hazard Analysis (PHA)
 Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP)  Generally, setpoint can be determined by
 Layer of Protection Analysis (LOPA)
 Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA)  Allowable Response Time
 Failure Mode and Effect Analysis  Complexity of the operator response
(FEMA)  Time necessary to complete operator
 Risk Assessments action
 Incident Investigation Recommenda-  Normal operating range
tions  Operating or Design Boundaries
 Operating Procedure Review  Knowledge of process operation or
 Piping and Instrumentation Diagram history
(P&ID)
 Development and Review  Any new alarm requirement raised should
be from the recommendations of any one
 Process Modifications
of the above-mentioned alarm identifica-
 Safe Operating Limits tion methods.
 National and International Standards  Identification method for the new alarm to
and be mentioned in the “Request form”.
 Regulations  Identified new alarms will have to go
 Technical Literature through the Alarm Rationalization process
 Project Documentation (or) Basic De- for incorporation.
sign  System/Instrument Engineer is responsi-
ble for incorporating new alarm in the sys-
 Engineering Packages
tem as per the request form.
 Manufacturers/Vendor recommenda-  Production operations team to mention
tion required alarm attributes in the request
 Packaged Equipment Manufacturers form for incorporation.
 Recommendations  Any new alarm requirement outside the
 Company Policy recommended alarm identification meth-
 Environmental Limits ods shall not be taken up for implementa-
tion by System/Instrument Engineer.
 Quality Review
 Any Alarm set point to be changed shall
go through the rationalization process and
 Generally, below mentioned cases shall determination of the setpoint method to
not be considered as an alarm: be mentioned in the request form by the
 Signals without a defined operator re- Production operations team for incorpora-
sponse tion in the system by System/Instrument
 42

Engineer. AUTHOR
 Any alarm to be removed from the system
shall go through the rationalization pro-
cess, and rationale for removal to be men-
tioned in the request form by the Produc-
tion operations team for removal from the
system by System/Instrument Engineer.
 System/Instrument Engineer to update
Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-
master alarm database summary list upon
neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
any inclusion or modification, including new
production & processing facilities and Refin-
alarm point addition in the system or re-
ery process units. Professional experience
moval from the system or any setpoint
covers Production operations, Facility surveil-
changes.
lance, Technical safety, Technical Services -
Process, and Projects. Praveen has worked
TRAINING CONTENT
with major Oil & Gas companies in India,
Training shall be conducted for all direct and
namely Nayara Energy, formerly known as
indirect user department personnel to familiar-
Essar Oil Limited and Cairn Oil & Gas.
ize the facilities alarm system functions and
management. Every person working in the di-
rect and indirect user departments shall under-
go training every year. Training content is as
mentioned below:
 Familiarization of Alarm management phi-
losophy
 Alarm Rationalization
 Alarm Master Database document
 Details about Key Performance Indicators
of Alarm system
 Alarm system performance monitoring
methods and reporting
 Change process for Alarm set point
 Use, designation, and distinction of Alarm
Priority
 Change process and request process for
addition/removal of alarm or changes in
alarm attributes
 Features of the control system’s alarm
presentation, annunciation, and manage-
ment
 Permissible and Non-permissible changes
to the alarm system by operations person-
nel’s
 Usage of Advanced Alarm handling strate-
gies
 Procedures regarding handling and report-
ing of nuisance alarms
 Methods for silencing and acknowledging
an alarm
 Usage of alarm HMI features
 Methods for alarm shelving and suppres-
sion
 Methods for removing alarm from service

REFERENCES
 ANSI/ISA-18.2.2016 Management of Alarm
Systems for the process industries
 EEMUA PUBLICATIOn No.191 Edition 2
Alarm Systems A Guide to Design, Man-
agement and Procurement