When you talk to commissioning folks, every one of them will tell you that commissioning must be involved early in projects.
But what does this actually mean? Why do projects need to plan for commissioning so early?
- Is it just a bunch of meetings to talk about testing that will take place in 3 years?
- Is early commissioning involvement just creating a bunch of unnecessary work and slowing down project progress?
- Are commissioning folks just looking for more work, and want to be involved during more of the project?
Surprisingly, there has been no publicly available standard or guideline that defines what is required for commissioning during project concept and FEED stages. And it’s no wonder that project teams are hesitant to start planning for commissioning early when it’s not clear what needs to be done at the beginning of projects. There certainly is no testing at the beginning of projects, so what’s going on with commissioning so early?
When I speak to most people on projects, their to-do list is very long, and commissioning is at the very bottom of the list. They’ve got a lot of higher-priority items to focus on, such as creating design specifications, awarding contracts, and getting construction started. When there is so much to do on projects, it’s natural for people to focus on the highest-priority activities – they never get time to focus on commissioning that’s taking place 2 years from now.
But early commissioning planning is actually not that difficult. At early stages of projects, the important aspect to consider is commissioning strategy. It may be clear to some people what needs to be done for commissioning, but not everyone has this same understanding of commissioning. So, it’s important to define your commissioning strategy in your Project Commissioning Plan. This is the strategy document to complete during project concept stages or during FEED that defines the big-block elements of how your project will be completed at the end. Your PCP commissioning strategy document defines “what” needs to be done for commissioning. This can be determined in the early stages of projects, and does not get into the detailed planning at the equipment tag level quite yet. Your commissioning strategy will actually confirm if what you’re planning during preliminary design planning can actually be accomplished during testing at the end.
Only once there are sufficient engineering design details available can you start to define your Commissioning Execution Plan. This is the document that defines “how” to complete testing in more detail, and is written later in detailed design or early construction phases, once sufficient design details are available to fully define the details of on-site testing.
This is how you integrate early commissioning planning into your projects – with your PCP to define your commissioning strategy early in projects and your CEP to define the next level of details for commissioning once sufficient design details are available. These 2 documents are critical to defining your commissioning success, and helping everyone working on projects understand what success looks like during commissioning, to allow all project groups to start with the end in mind and focus on the end goal of successful commissioning and startup to meet project in-service dates.
These 2 planning documents are easy to create. They are each defined in the ICA Global Commissioning Standard, to define the contents of each of these documents. You can then also download the templates for each of these documents, so you can easily get started with each. The Industrial Commissioning Association wants to make it as easy as possible for you to include commissioning early in your projects, and we’re giving you all the tools to make it easy for you.
Because if you’re only focused on awarding contracts at the beginning of your projects, or only focused on engineering design, or only focused on design and construction, then you’re only looking at the project tasks to complete, and not focused on the project outcome. Instead of focusing on the tasks and actions, focus on the outcome of the project, which is to deliver high-quality systems that can be used for decades of reliable operation. The only way to do this is to involve commissioning in the early project planning phases in conjunction with design and construction planning, so that 3 phases of projects are planned in conjunction for improved project integration.
The steps are simple to include commissioning planning in projects right from the start:
- Step 1 – Download the ICA Global Commissioning Standard, it includes all the tasks to complete for early commissioning planning
- Step 2 – Download the associated PCP and CEP document templates, so you know exactly what to include in each document.
- Step 3 – Engage someone knowledgeable with commissioning to help plan and prepare your PCP and CEP – someone who’s been involved in the commissioning of the type of project you’re working on right to the end, who has the experience to see what worked well, and what didn’t work well. This person will be able to apply the lessons learned from past projects to your PCP and CEP, so that your project can avoid the same mistakes.
With these 3 steps, you’ve done the best you can to “Start with the end in mind” and focus on the outcome of your project and not just the tasks along the way to finishing.
I recently noticed a post on LinkedIn from the UK National Infrastructure Commission – they recently signed off 150 development consent orders for new infrastructure projects. And when they signed off to initiate these projects, they highlighted the need to “jump-start the lethargic planning system currently in place for projects”. This is a clear indication that projects need improved project planning for better success. And not just improved planning for design and construction – commissioning must be included in early project planning as well, if all stages of projects are to succeed.
Get access to the ICA Global Commissioning Standard that defines the contents of your PCP and CEP, then download the document templates for each of these. Prepare these documents for your projects, and you’re well on your way to plan for commissioning success, starting right at the beginning of projects.
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