TSA Insight Magazine Issue 26 - Magazine - Page 35
Step 2 – Turning climate hazards into
process safety risks
Identifying hazards is only the
beginning.
Operators must then understand how
those hazards interact with existing
process safety barriers.
Floodwater may not directly cause
a major accident, but it may disable
pumps, electrical equipment or
instrumentation that form part of the
site’s protection systems.
Similarly, heatwaves may increase
equipment
loading,
accelerate
material degradation or reduce the
effectiveness of cooling systems.
The objective is to understand not
only what might fail, but how multiple
failures could combine during an
extreme weather event.
This is particularly important where
climate
hazards
could
create
common cause failures affecting
several independent protection layers
simultaneously.
By integrating climate scenarios into
existing HAZID, HAZOP and major
accident hazard reviews, operators
can identify vulnerabilities before they
become operational problems.
Step 3 – Prioritising adaptation
measures
Not every climate risk requires
immediate investment.
Some
improvements
can
be
implemented
quickly
through
procedural
changes,
inspection
regimes or emergency planning.
Others may naturally align with future
capital projects.
The objective is to identify measures
that remain proportionate while
maintaining major accident risk ALARP.
Examples may include:
•
improving drainage
•
increasing flood resilience
•
reviewing firewater storage
•
strengthening emergency response
arrangements
•
relocating vulnerable electrical
equipment
•
improving backup power
arrangements
•
reviewing containment strategies
Importantly,
climate
adaptation
should become part of routine asset
management rather than a standalone
programme.
likelihood that future climate conditions
compromise the effectiveness of their
major accident prevention measures.
Climate change introduces uncertainty.
A structured management framework
provides a practical method for
managing that uncertainty.
For tank storage operators, the
question is no longer whether climate
adaptation should be considered.
It is how systematically it can be
integrated into everyday process
safety management.
For more information, please visit
www.arthian.com
Write to: hello@arthian.com
When planned correctly, many
adaptation measures can be delivered
alongside scheduled maintenance
or
replacement
programmes,
significantly reducing overall cost.
Climate adaptation is becoming
standard practice
Climate adaptation is steadily moving
from emerging good practice towards
regulatory expectation.
For operators, this should not be
viewed purely as another compliance
obligation.
The organisations that begin adapting
now are likely to benefit from improved
operational
resilience,
stronger
business continuity and betterinformed investment decisions.
More importantly, they will reduce the
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