Elements and Performance Criteria

Context
This unit of competency includes all such items of equipment and unit operations which use utilities.

HSE
All operations to which this unit applies are subject to stringent health, safety and environment requirements, which may be imposed through State or Federal legislation, and these must not be compromised at any time. Where there is an apparent conflict between performance criteria and HSE requirements, the HSE requirements take precedence.

Assessment context and methods
Assessment for this unit of competency will be on an operating plant. The unit will be assessed in as holistic a manner as is practical and may be integrated with the assessment of other relevant units of competency.

Typically this unit will be assessed by a project aimed at improving the efficiency of use of utilities. It may not be appropriate to wait until implementation of change (in element 4) is complete, and it is acceptable to assess from the plans for implementation.

This unit of competency requires a significant body of knowledge which will be assessed through questioning and the use of what if scenarios both on the plant (during demonstration of normal operations and walk-throughs of abnormal operations) and off the plant.

Critical aspects
Competence must be demonstrated in the ability to undertake a structured analysis of the use of utilities and to justify the recommendations for improvement based on the data.

Consistent performance should be demonstrated. In particular look to see that:
plant data is obtained in a manner which does not interfere with production
plant drawings (e.g. P&IDs) and engineering specifications are interpreted correctly
health, safety and environmental implications of any changes are identified and addressed, by applying the hierarchy of control, prior to any changes being implemented
priorities for action consider all relevant factors such as plant key performance indicators, health, safety and environmental implications, simple, quick solutions versus those requiring a capital project, and other relevant business factors.

This will typically be assessed by one or more utilities improvement projects on an operating plant. One complex project, or a number of simple projects, are required to demonstrate competence.

Resource implications
Assessment will require access to an operating plant over an extended period of time, or a suitable method of gathering evidence of operating ability over a range of situations. A bank of scenarios/case studies/what ifs will be required as will a bank of questions which will be used to probe the reasoning behind the observable actions.

Other assessment advice
In all plants it may be appropriate to assess this unit concurrently with relevant teamwork and communication units.

It may be appropriate to co-assess this unit with:
PMAOPS511A - Determine energy transfer loads
PMAOPS512A - Determine mass transfer loads

However, these are NOT prerequisites or corequisites as there are other ways of obtaining the data.

Essential knowledge
Competence includes an understanding of the utility usage of the plant and its equipment. It also requires an understanding of each utility used and how its use may be more or less efficient. It requires the ability to:
identify all utility consuming items on a schematic of the plant, describe the function of each and the purpose of the utility supplied
describe the nature/condition of the utility entering and leaving each stage of the process, the changes which have occurred in that stage and why they have occurred
describe the causes and remedies of common problems in the use of each utility used.

Competence also includes the ability to isolate the causes of problems and to be able to distinguish between causes of problems/alarm/fault indications such as:
poor/inappropriate quality supply of utility
equipment failure (e.g. faulty steam trap, fouled heat exchanger)
operational problem (inappropriate usage pattern of utility).