RVA targets plant decommissioning partnerships

United Kingdom-based engineering consultancy RVA Group says it has launched a new service designed to manage processes at “the number of industrial and process site closures globally.” RVA says the number of decommissioning opportunities in the global chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, power, energy, oil, gas and heavy manufacturing industries “continues to rise.”

Saying it has “successfully delivered more than 850 decommissioning, decontamination, demolition and dismantling (DDDD) projects all over the world,” RVA Group says it has “identified a gap in the market when it comes to one of the earliest phases of preparing a site to be mothballed or removed.”

Asset owners commonly use internal resources to handle initial decommissioning works, perhaps because they don’t consider alternative approaches, says RVA. However, global industry standards such as the Construction Design Management (CDM) regulations, state that it is best practice – and the law in the U.K. – for decommissioning “to fall within this remit.” A principal designer should therefore be involved from the earliest phase to ensure the process is rigorously planned from the outset, says RVA.

Thus, while the asset owner can assume the role of principal contractor, an experienced team with a decommissioning mindset should be charged with supporting or writing the decommissioning plan itself, as well as documenting the detailed processes to follow, and auditing works throughout, says RVA Group’s managing director Richard Vann.

“Nobody knows an asset or site better than the operator who has run it for several years,” he comments. “So, when the owner calls time on its operational life it would be unwise to overlook the depth and value of process and plant-specific knowledge that such individuals could bring to the table, during a decommissioning project.”

Continues Vann, “However, despite decommissioning often being considered an extension of site maintenance, it represents a specific engineering discipline that requires a distinct mindset. There’s a difference between measures for maintenance or routine turnaround purposes for instance and decommissioning the asset entirely because it has reached its end of life and will never be restarted. Ironically, DDDD presents a number of opportunities that will not only make the process cost effective but also, in many instances, remove hazards and enable increased environmental, health and safety standards to be implemented.”

There also can be a financial argument for earlier involvement from decommissioning specialists, says Vann. “Sometimes operators go to such extremes that they undertake processes they don’t actually need to, as they could be handled more efficiently, and ultimately safely, during the dismantling phase,” he remarks.

RVA Group says its decommissioning team brings more than 200 years of combined experience to the market.