The Valor Method & Atlas OT Partner Up!

The Valor Method and Atlas OT have partnered to provide even more comprehensive compliance services to the US. With the escalation of regulations especially in regard to monitoring of emissions and off-nominal operations, this team-up is essential to provide not only process engineering services but automation and programming services to our valued customers.

“Compliance used to mean process simulations from behind the desk. The future of compliance is using automation and field data to validate those process simulations and to use that data to predict future compliance at that facility and other similar designed facilities.”

With this team up, here are the additional services being offered by the Valor Method/Atlas OT team:

Alarm Log Pulls
Valor and Atlas OT can pull the alarms from the site control system which could include PLC(s), RTU(s), HMIs, or designated telemetry system (e.g., SCADA) and download them to an offline system. The purpose of this effort is to do alarm rationalizations and “audit trail” (i.e., what was the operator intervention to resolve that alarm) during the Desktop portion of the audit and determine if there have been recurring overpressurizations or malfunctions that could be causing emissions or operations outside of permitted limits.

Control Logic Pulls
During site inspections, Valor and Atlas OT pull the control logic to an offline system. During the desktop portion, the team reviews the control logic to determine if the programming is the cause of nuisance alarms. In addition, the control logic will be compared to the Cause and Effect that was established in the Design Basis to ensure the facility is operating as intended.

Instrument Verification
Some instruments are essential for proof of compliance such as heater treater pressure transducers, tank pressure transducers, flare flowmeters, etc. Valor records the make, model, and serial number and installation of these instruments. Atlas OT connects to the PLC or the instrument itself to gather the span/calibrated range (this will be done provided no work permit is required to open a transmitter cap). This will be used to determine if the correct instrument is being used for the application and help eliminate “bad instrumentation” as a potential root cause to alarms or unexpected SCADA trends. Since the latest regulations are geared toward measurement of emission sources, having some form of instrumentation verification is highly recommended.

Give Valor Method a call today to learn more about the future of compliance