The oil and gas industry relies on alarms to monitor remote equipment, operate safely and meet performance benchmarks. Common challenges include implementing an effective alarm management system over a large infrastructure and managing a SCADA system. DCP Midstream chose TiPS LogMate to address these common challenges. Here’s why.
About DCP Midstream
DCP Midstream is a Fortune 500 company and the third-largest midstream gas provider in the US. With about 60,000 miles of pipelines across 11 states and some offshore assets, it manages an extensive infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Denver and has a control center in Houston from which operators review and process alarms for remote locations.
As a key player in the energy value chain, DCP Midstream focuses on safety, reliability and affordability. It achieves these goals through innovation, operational excellence and sustainable solutions.
Adopting LogMate to create a more modern alarm management process fell in line with their goals.
What problems did DCP Midstream face?
Due to the size of its infrastructure, managing alarms was a challenge prior to adopting LogMate. With an insurmountable number of alarms each day, operators were often overwhelmed and struggled to identify emergency alarms among a steady influx of alerts.
The natural gas provider was also facing performance issues with its SCADA application. It needed to improve the way it documented alarm loads and tracked KPIs for compliance purposes.
Adopting LogMate
DCP Midstream rolled out LogMate for its Denver and Houston facilities. Overall, about 100 people adopted LogMate, including operators at the management level and users in the control room.
LogMate’s capability to support both local and remote architectures made sense for the unique needs of DCP. With a network of regulated pipelines managed in Houston, unregulated pipelines managed in Denver and some offshore assets, having a versatile tool resulted in more streamlined operations and better visibility over the entire infrastructure.
DCP Midstream updated a few workflows after adopting LogMate. Alarm data was incorporated into the decision-making process. The company also implemented new workflows to track the alarm rate per hour and alarm flood.
What was the outcome of adopting LogMate?
The immediate benefit was access to a tool that is audit-compliant and that meets the requirements of DCP Midstream at an affordable cost. The natural gas provider reports a high satisfaction rate among users who now have a centralized web-based tool to manage emergency and non-emergency alarms in a more efficient way.
Another benefit was the reduced hourly alarm rate. ISA standards for alarm management control systems recommend keeping the average alarm rate below two alarms per hour to reduce operator stress.
Prior to using LogMate, operators had to deal with much higher volumes and sometimes struggled with managing the alarm loop. With LogMate in place, operators now deal with an alarm volume that falls within the ISA standards. They can make better decisions without feeling overwhelmed.
DCP Midstream also achieved better visibility over its bad actors. While the alarm rate is reviewed on a monthly basis for most components, there are a few known bad actors monitored weekly to make the company more proactive in these problematic areas.
DCP Midstream would say to companies considering LogMate versus some of the other products on the market that they’re getting the most for their dollar with the LogMate solution. It provides everything that is required from an audit compliance standpoint.
All of the DCP Midstream controllers use LogMate. They have it open on their console and are required to document alarm activity daily. Management and control room personnel also receive daily reports and take action based on what the reports show.
Learn more about LogMate
TiPS is proud to support DCP Midstream’s goals of building a safer infrastructure and achieving a higher level of operational excellence to continue acting as a major provider of natural gas in the US. Benefits like better visibility over operations and reduced operator stress are representative of what LogMate can do for other oil and gas providers.
Do you want to learn more and see how LogMate can help you tackle these challenges? Schedule a demo today to see the solution in action.