February 9, 2011 - GE Intelligent Platforms announced that its Proficy Workflow work process management solution has been chosen by S3 Development Corporation of Nashua, New Hampshire, as the foundation for an Intelligent Control Room Management solution for the company s natural gas and hazardous liquids customers. The solution will be piloted at three East Coast natural gas utilities, starting in Q1 2011.
The Control Room Management solution is in direct response to the Control Room Management/Human Factors mandate from the U.S. Department of Transportation, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that requires companies transporting natural gas and other gases as well as hazardous liquids by pipeline to comply with minimum safety standards. The PHMSA regulation, 49 CFR Part 192 and 49 CFR Part 195 specifies procedural guidelines around access to information, alarm and change management, fatigue mitigation, operating experience, training, compliance validation, and compliance deviation. The government is hoping to reduce risk and improve safety during the transportation of hazardous gases and liquids. The deadline for compliance to these regulations was accelerated by 18 months, so companies must have plans and procedures in place for compliance by August 2011 and implemented by February 2012.
With companies scrambling to determine how to comply with this mandate, S3 Development is on the leading edge, said Sheila Kester, General Manager of Operations Management Software for GE Intelligent Platforms. As a leading technology and consulting company in the natural gas industry, their solution will take all parts of the mandate into account, allowing companies to capture events and trigger the necessary Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for action whether related to alarm management, operator duty cycles and fatigue mitigation or change management. This application plays to the strengths of GE s Proficy Software solutions, helping companies achieve success through compliance by providing a model for what global companies could do to reduce risk.
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