Understanding the Commissioning Manual
Part 3 of 5
As we have already established in previous part 1 and part 2 of our mini series about the Testing & Commissioning process, the Commissioning Manual is an integral part of your T&C deliverables.
Its contents will obviously vary depending on the nature of your project but the objective is always the same: to gather in one place all of the key procedures and rules that will govern how you intend to deliver the testing and commissioning programme for the project.
If your project is a major railway construction endeavour, the Commissioning Manual is likely to cover the following topics:-
- Installation Release Notice (IRN)
- Work Authorisation Document (WAD)
- Remedial & Outstanding Work List (ROWL)
- T&C Phasing & Certification
- Systems Breakdown and Identification or Nomenclature
- Self-Certification of T&C Works
- Typical Format of Test Procedures & Test Dada Sheets
- Typical Format for Commissioning Certificates
- Test Tools Calibration Procedure
- Power-On Control Procedure
- Room Availability & Access Control Procedure
- Permit Office Procedure
- Electrical Commissioning Rule Book
- Mechanical Safety Rules
- Electrical Safety Rules (incl. Traction Power)
- Certification of Testing Personnel
- Certification of Nominated, Competent and Authorised Persons
- Construction & Commissioning Railway Rule Book (CCRRB)
Evidently a number of essential documents will be required in addition to the ones listed above, although they do not form part of the Commissioning Manual. For the purpose of clarity these are, in no particular order:-
- Test Descriptions and Test Procedures for each system and for the Dynamic Integration Tests,
- Energisation Packs for non-traction and traction power energisations,
- Energisation Strategies & Notifications to the local authorities,
- Commissioning Logics and Commissioning Schedules,
- Test Run Dossiers (Dynamic Testing),
- Interface documents with external facilities networks, external railway networks as well as the Rolling Stock Provider who will support your Dynamic Integration Tests.
- and many others…
Main Procedures & Rules
Developing each of the procedures as listed in the Commissioning Manual is a significant endeavour that will probably take a year or so, from contract award. For the purpose of this part 3 article we will simply focus on just three of them that we consider most important, otherwise it will take too long and may require that one writes a book someday !
These are the Installation Release Notice (IRN), the Work Authorisation Document (WAD) and the Construction & Commissioning Railway Rule Book (CCRRB).
If you are really interested in learning more about some of the other procedures contained in the Commissioning Manual beyond those three, feel free to add your request in the comments section below.
Installation Release Notice (IRN)
As briefly mentioned in part 1 & 2 of our mini series, the IRN is probably one of the most important processes you will be required to implement as part of your Testing & Commissioning plan. Once you understand what this process is and for what purpose it was initially crafted, you will definitely want to adopt it and implement it correctly and consistently.
The IRN itself is a simple form that contains a few key signatures at the bottom. As such this document formalises the end of the installation checks for a specific ComLot, thus acknowledging the fact that installation of the components part of the ComLot is complete and is in accordance with the standards and project/manufacturer specifications. Pretty simple and straightforward in principle.
However as a consequence, the IRN also formalises the transfer of responsibility for part of a System from the Installation to the Commissioning teams and their respective safety regimes. And that is fundamental.
As the person supposed to be at the receiving end of the IRN you will not be too excited at becoming responsible for something you or your team haven’t had a chance to scrutinise. So how do you ensure the project can safely move to the next phase and that you protect your T&C department from the possibly nasty consequences of installation flaws moving forward?
You produce an IRN procedure that works for you ! Said otherwise, you ensure that it organises this transfer in such a way that the party handing over the equipment/asset is fully responsible for gathering all the evidence that the design, manufacturing, FATs and the installation itself have produced over the years. Last but not least, you ensure that the installation team remains liable for fixing whatever you may discover down the line. To help with tracking this you will also establish the Remedial & Outstanding Work List or ROWL at the time of the IRN.
It is imperative that all stakeholders become familiar with these principles at the earliest stage of the project. It is rather counterproductive to publish your IRN procedure just before the initial IRN needs to be signed and expect compliance. Given that the records collection may span several months or even years, the T&C team must disseminate the procedure promptly. Furthermore, the T&C Manager should consistently remind all involved parties of the expectations to ensure thorough understanding and compliance. The last thing you need is for your colleagues to be uncertain about the requirements and expectations, leading to confusion and questions two years down the line.
Having such a system in place will allow you to draw a line in the sand records wise, in conjunction with the QA Manager and your client, allowing you to progress with testing and commissioning in a meaningful way.
To put things in perspective, having an IRN is bit like getting a survey done before buying a house. The IRN acts like an audit, providing reassurance that the ‘roof will not fall in’ once the keys are handed over.
By now, you probably understand why it is so crucial for the T&C Manager and the T&C Team to remain as independent from the production line as possible and why on projects where such safeguards are not clearly in place, it is a recipe for disaster waiting to unfold.
This independence really helps the T&C team avoid being subjected to the politics of subtle ‘bullying.’ Colleagues, under tremendous pressure to conclude their own work, might sometimes hope that you sign the IRN without scrutinising it too deeply. If you want for people to respect you, your team and your work, you need to stand fair but firm.
Work Authorisation Document (WAD)
The WAD procedure is necessary in order to establish control and co-ordination of all work activities on a ComLot, subsequent to the issue of an Installation Release Notice (IRN). It applies to all systems, whether rail systems or stations systems, portals and intermediate shafts mechanical and electrical assets.
Why do you need that level of control? To guarantee the validity of the end product, as simple as that.
Without a robust WAD process in place, individuals can reach the IRN stage, formalise the transfer of responsibility to the T&C team, and still make subsequent changes at their discretion without the project team being aware. This undermines the integrity of newly installed infrastructure assets, can lead to significant issues in Configuration Management, and ultimately renders the IRN procedure obsolete.
To use an analogy, this would be like a violation of the chain of custody in a court case resulting in evidence being ruled as inadmissible, meaning it cannot be presented or believed to be authentic when the time comes to handover the project to the end client.
That would be rather problematic, to say the least…
With the WAD in place, all work activities on plants and equipment post IRN are subject to prior planning and authorisation. In practical terms it means padlocks are changed, locks to rooms are swapped, key suites are controlled in a cabinet under the sole control of the WAD team and nobodies goes anywhere where assets have been ‘IRNed’ or whole rooms have been ‘WADed’, without the prior express consent of the WAD Manager or WAD Coordinators.
From that point forward, they assume the role of Guardians of the Temple, a responsibility that often results in the creation of numerous tensions 🙂
The WAD Manager signs each IRN form to acknowledge that a particular ComLot will undergo a change of state from quiescent to possibly energised and use this signature process to inform all the relevant stakeholders of the change of status of the ComLot. The WAD team must keep an up to date register of all ComLots that have attained IRN status.
In order to provide a coordinated approach to the works to ensure that a safe system of work is in place, a weekly WAD Notice meeting is chaired by the WAD Manager who is responsible for the area where the ComLots to be worked on are located. It is the responsibility of the T&C/Installation responsible engineers to co-ordinate their work activities with each other by means of these meetings.
Any person wanting to carry out works must therefore arrange, in advance, at the Weekly/Daily Notice meeting for a WAD Form to be granted. WAD Forms are captured on a WAD Notice that is published weekly and widely distributed.
Construction & Commissioning Railway Rule Book (CCRRB)
General Principles
The last document we will address in this article is the Construction & Commissioning Railway Rule Book or CCRRB.
This is a very important document but only if your project is about the construction and commissioning of a Railway Line. Otherwise, you won’t need one! However on a railway project this document is absolutely indispensable.
Indeed, the CCRRB exists to describe the safe methods, standards and guide lines that are in place to ensure the safety of all personnel and assets, and for the safe operation of Rail Vehicle movements during both the fit out and testing & commissioning phases of railway projects.
Provided you need ‘steel on steel’ operations to build it, that is.
And if you are to be connected to Network Rail or TfL operational railway infrastructure (if based in the UK), or any other external operational railway network at some point, the CCRRB shall also apply to the movement of trains to and from these external railway networks.
The application of this document generally commences at the construction phase and will continue through to the completion of the dynamic testing & commissioning, with Test Trains. Hence why the T&C Team needs to be involved, if not with the construction element of the CCRRB, definitely with the commissioning part. Getting involved early will still be beneficial though as you will need to influence how things are done during the construction phase not to have to break everything to pieces and start over when you need the CCRRB to work for you later on.
As the CCRRB and its associated appendices must be in place to ensure the safety of all personnel working on or around the railway from the commencement of construction through to the completion of testing and commissioning, it is therefore crucial that these principles and concepts, which people will become accustomed to over time, do not change drastically during first traction-power energisation and Dynamic Testing.
CCRRB Appendices
CCRRB appendices focus on specific activity based processes which are reflected in separated documents. This allow for the CCRRB ‘core’ document to remain of a reasonable and manageable size. The T&C Team will need to be involved with the creation of some of these appendices, not least the one describing the relevant arrangements that need to be in place to allow the save movement of Test Trains at line speed.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of key appendices that any decent CCRRB should contain, in due course:-
- Fire & Fusing actions on Trains & RRVs
- General Arrangements for ETD’s & RRVO’s
- Movement of Trains Between Interfaces
- Operation & Protection of points
- Railhead Operations / Shunting Operations
- Rescue & Recovery of Personnel
- Radio Comms for Rail Vehicle Movements
- Train & RRV Related incidents
- Train & Worksite Bookings
- Train Loading
- Worksite Operations
- Arrangements for Test Trains
- etc…
CCRRB Telecommunications
A key part of the CCRRB is how trains and work sites personnel will be able to communicate to ensure the safe movements of rail vehicles. Trains and Road-Rail Vehicles (RRVs) are very useful but also extremely dangerous to operate. What needs to be achieved is to ensure there will be as much segregation as possible between vehicles and individuals working in the rail corridor. Such segregation will not always be possible, strictly speaking, but it can be limited to just worksites allowing walking speed activities only.
The CCRRB must ensure that these activities are conducted safely and effectively. The choice of an appropriate telecommunication medium is critical and can significantly impact the success of operations; therefore, it is essential not to underestimate this factor.
A dedicated temporary telecommunication system based principally on radios communications must be in place to allow for trains and RRVs movements to take place. Over the years the technology has evolved to also encompass wireless communications, end-to-end WiFi, real-time location systems and video capture.
Although the main principles remain the same, the way the T&C Team will use the communications systems during the Dynamic Integration Testing phase of the project will evolve slightly, in order to take into consideration new parameters and constraints.
Regardless of the technology procured, the CCRRB must dictate how communication lines are to be established to support your works. Hereafter are a couple of illustrations relating to Test Trains operations in two different contexts.
First Energisation of the Traction Power
Prior to the first energisation of Traction Power equipment, all personnel who are required to work on site should attend an updated induction course and successfully complete the assessment. The CCRRB should dictate that personnel who successfully complete the assessment will be issued with an updated ID card, where the background colour is modified (usually changed from WHITE to YELLOW). This is to ensure that personnel who are NOT in possession of an updated card will not be allowed into any dangerous zones that will be subject to first traction power energisation. This is even more critical when energisations affect the rail corridor and are not only confined within strictly controlled, closed rooms environments.
Due to the requirement to carry out testing and commissioning activities, remedial works and finalisation works in sections that will be energised whilst full construction activities may be ongoing in sections that have not yet been energised, you should make sure that only specially authorised personnel will be able to work in both zones, unless you are able to physically segregate the energised zones from the rest and treat them as a separate project within the project.
Finally the CCRRB should refer to the fact that the requirements for switching on and off the traction power, carrying out isolations and issuing permits to work need to be covered in a separate Electrical Safety Rules document. Another key document on your list if your railway project is to become an electrified one eventually.
That is it now for Part 3 of our mini series, we hope this has provided you with a better understanding of the reason for establishing a Commissioning Manual and why the T&C Team needs to be involved at an early stage in the project in order to have all the key processes in place in time for your team and others to understand, digest and implement them.
In Part 4, our focus will shift to the mechanisms governing the Traction Power energisation strategy for new railway lines.