Peel Ports Group is the UK’s second-largest port operator, handling over 70 million tonnes of cargo annually and managing approximately 13-15% of total UK port traffic. Headquartered in Liverpool, the group operates major facilities including Liverpool, Clydeport and London Medway focusing on sustainable, port-centric services.
Port of Greenock is Scotland’s leading west coast container terminal and across the Clydeport cluster Clydeport handle essential commodities including agribulks, containers, forest products, project and bulk cargoes and much more.
Requirements
Peel Ports Group were actively reviewing the arc flash risk at their Clydeport sites. As a lead consultancy in arc flash risk assessment and management Electrical Safety UK Ltd (ESUK), were contacted by Peel Ports Group, to provide a proposal to carryout arc flash risk assessment studies for the ports within the Clydeport group.
Peel Ports required a suitably qualified and competent contractor to successfully deliver the arc flash study to their requirements and provide the necessary information to assist them with managing their arc flash risk.
Solution
Electrical Safety UK Ltd carried out a free of charge, visit to Port of Greenock (and each of the Clydeport sites) to discuss and agree with Peel Ports the scope of work and undertake a pre-assessment to determine and collect the data of their electrical network. Whilst at Port of Greenock ESUK provided a short presentation on arc flash awareness and the ESUK approach for the arc flash study.
The site visit and discussion with Peel Ports enabled ESUK to p rovide a fi xed p rice p roposal f or t he A rc Flash Risk Assessment Study and agree project milestones and a completion date
Approach
ESUK agreed the scope and strategy with Peel Ports, Head of Engineering responsible for Clydeport group of sites.
ESUK conducted a discovery phase of the work gathering and verifying actual site installation information on the electrical distribution system network and equipment. This information was collated on our tablet using our EasyPower© Onsite software tool, which allows photos to be take of the specific equipment or protective devices and tagged to the equipment.
This collected information enabled us to develop an initial single line model of the distribution system using the EasyPower© software to then provide a verification and outstanding information data pack where data could not be confirmed, or equipment could not be safety isolated for operational reasons during the discovery phase.
Following the provision of this outstanding information a full arc flash analysis was conducted on the Port of Greenock distribution system model using the EasyPower© software to undertake: –
• Short Circuit Analysis to IEC 60909.
• Protective device and distribution equipment short circuit breaking/rating capacity analysis.
• Simple protective device co-ordination (TCC’s).
• Arc flash incident energy analysis.
• Arc flash boundary distance.
The site was supplied at both high voltage (11kV) and low voltage (400V) from Scottish Power Energy Networks Ltd, to two separate networks.
Any instances where the 3-phase prospective short circuit current exceeded the breaking capacity of the protective devices, these were highlighted in the arc flash risk assessment report. Protective curves showing any instances of miscoordination were provided for the circuit protective devices.
Incident energy levels and arc flash boundary distances were listed for all equipment included in the scope of the study.
Incident energy hazard reduction analysis was then conducted and preferred options and order of magnitude of cost were given for the reduction of the incident energy where it was above 8 cal/cm2. Further to this we also provided guidance on the “As Low as is Reasonably Practicable” (ALARP) requirements in line with UK Legislation to provide an indication of what might be expected to be invested to reduce and manage the risk from potential arc flash incidents.
We provided a Microsoft Teams video presentation of the Arc Flash Risk Assessment Report to Peel Ports Group, Head of Engineering to assist in the understanding of the arc flash risk assessment study, its findings, the recommendations, and the proposed next steps to support the improvement and management of their arc flash risk.
United Kingdom/European Standard compliance arc flash labels were issued to Peel Ports Group once site personnel approved the design along with up-to-date single line drawings for the electrical distribution network that provided the Site Data, Prospective Short Circuit Current (Fault Study) and Arc Flash Study Analysis information.
Peel Ports Group, are in the process of engaging ESUK to provide Practical Arc Flash Risk Assessment and Arc Flash Awareness training to Peel Ports Group electrical and mechanical maintenance team staff for this and their other Clydeport sites.
