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Home / Technical Articles / The Job of an Electrical Commissioning Engineer (Activities and Real World Examples)

Guide Through Commissioning Activities

This article aims to cover the activity of electrical commissioning. Such a task in its entirety would be immense. Commissioning can mean many things in different instances. This article aims to give a philosophical and high level conceptual overview of electrical commissioning. Giving the reader a framework and tools to execute an effective commissioning that can be adapted to their own project, with its own unique requirements and challenges.

The Job of an Electrical Commissioning Engineer (Activities and Real World Examples)
The Job of an Electrical Commissioning Engineer (Activities and Real World Examples)

In general, engineering projects can be divided up into semi discreet stages. Sometimes these stages will blend into one another. Every project is different, so consider this as more of a conceptual understanding, rather than a prescriptive absolute truth.

Concept ➤ FEED ➤ Basic design ➤ Detailed design ➤ Construction ➤ Installation ➤ Commissioning ➤ Handover to operations

In an ideal world, commissioning would be merely turning up on site, checking that the installation was performed correctly, performing some checks and tests on the equipment, confirming final equipment settings, and flipping the ON switch.

Unfortunately, this world is far from ideal. On larger projects commissioning activates will commence in parallel with other activities, such as installation of other systems, existing ongoing operations, finalization of detailed engineering, or if you are particularly unlucky, complete rework of basic engineering, should there be fatal flaws in the previous electrical design of the project.

With all this in mind, let’s attempt to understand how commissioning fits into an electrical project, so that we can converge on an optimal execution in our next commissioning.

Along the way there will be personal examples to underline particular points and give some real world context to the content.

Table of Contents:

  1. Different roles during commissioning:
    1. Vendors and Sub Suppliers
    2. System Integrator
    3. Project Owner
    4. Certifying Authority
  2. Scope of commissioning:
    1. Roles of individuals
    2. Payment
    3. Damaged equipment
    4. Recording changes
    5. Hidden mistakes
  3. Project planning and execution:
    1. Basic and detailed engineering for commissioning
    2. Dependent systems
    3. FAT and commissioning engineers
    4. On site acceptance testing
    5. System interface definition
  4. Testing and Verification
  5. Practical considerations for commissioning:
    1. Travel expenses
    2. Visa and customs
    3. Local arrangements
    4. Handover and rotation
    5. Miscellaneous
    6. Tools of the trade
  6. Safety:
    1. Local safety culture
    2. Lock Out Tag Out
    3. Energization of Equipment
  7. Conclusion
  8. BONUS (PDF) 🔗 Download Power Plant Commissioning Guide

1. Different roles during commissioning

There are several phenotypes of commissioning engineer. Depending on whom you represent in the project execution there will be different roles and responsibilities. We can broadly define these as:

  1. Individual sub supplier/vendor (OEM, local distributor representative)
  2. System integrator (EPC-IC)
  3. Project owner side (representing the end customer)
  4. Witnessing and certifying authority

Highly correlated to whom you represent is the scope of your commissioning responsibilities. These can range from configuring a single piece of equipment to delivering a complete turn key system. Generally, as you move up the chain from vendor to project owner, your scope will increase.

However, to keep things manageable on a human scale, even on the project owner side there should be division of responsibility.

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1.1 Vendors and Sub Suppliers

Vendors and sub suppliers will generally only be responsible for commissioning their own delivered systems. They often represent the OEM directly, or the local distribution in the geographic region of project execution. These engineers and technicians should be very familiar with the equipment they are delivering. The project engineering part of their organization should have provided full information on the specific delivery, including all project and product documentation.

A well prepared vendor engineer will have read through this documentation, as well as have an idea of the function of their equipment within the project.

Though this is not always the case, and it is typical for a supplier engineer to arrive with no project specific knowledge. This is where the project or system owner must use their familiarity with the project to guide the product or subsystem expert in what is required in the specific project task at hand.

After all, it is in the project owners best interest! Even if they are less than impressed with the vendors preparation.

To be a well prepared vendor engineer it is highly suggested that they read the project specific FDS (functional description specification) for the systems they will deliver as well as review the project documentation, such as GA (general arrangement) drawings, electrical schematics, and equipment data sheets . If they are part of a larger package delivery, it is highly useful to be aware of the other disciplines that are delivered as part of your company’s scope.

For example, if you represent ABB, or Siemens, and you specialize in HV GIS, you should ideally have some knowledge about the other deliveries from your firm. When the customer sees ABB on the jacket and they have automation issues, they don’t care if you only deal with GIS, they want a solution, so at least be able to connect them with the correct responsible person from your company’s side.

If time and billable hours permit, you could also do preliminary investigation, such as taking photos of the site and issue, and contacting your internal responsible person directly.

If the customer asks a question and you don’t have the answer, the correct answer is generally, “I don’t have that information right now, but I’ll find out for you”. Commissioning is as much about managing people and their expectations, as it is about completing a technical task. Keeping the confidence and trust of the client and project owner can make the process much easier and enjoyable.

Especially when you may need the assistance of the project owner to help with your own activities, such as borrowing some manpower for moving spare parts around site, or negotiating better parking spots for your engineers.

Figure 0 – ABB’s commissioning crew holding the meeting

Commissioning crew holding the meeting
Figure 0 – Commissioning crew holding the meeting

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1.2 System Integrator

As a system integrator you will be delivering a larger ‘system of systems’. This may be mostly in house, as can be the case with ABB, Simens, or GE, however, even these large engineering companies will have third party equipment as part of their delivery at times. Ranging from network switches, to complete gensets. Independant system integrators are generally more free to choose from any of the sub system suppliers on the market, though they may have pre-existing relationships or experience that makes them prefer trusted suppliers.

In either case, the system integrator will generally have to control the commissioning of sub systems, performed by the dedicated system specialist engineers, as well as ensure that the overall package is functioning as it should.

This may involve scheduling the commissioning activities and sub suppliers, so that they can carry out their activities in sequence and without costly delay.

On Figure 1 we see eight ABB commissioning engineers present during sea trial testing of an ice breaker vessel. In total this sea going stage of commissioning included 12 engineers on stie to tune, test, calibrate, and monitor the total delivered system at sea, with approximately 30 engineers who had taken part at earlier stages of the on site commissioning activities.

There are six distinct technical disciplines represented here, as well as an overall coordination role.

Each individual is responsible for their own system, however, as a whole they must deliver a complete power plant, propulsion, and control system. Team work and good interdisciplinary communication is key. It can be helpful to have one nominated person to take the role (sub) system integrator on site, handling interface to other vendors and the project owner.

It is a natural extension that this person might also provide weekly or daily progress reports for head office to follow the project.

Figure 1 – ABB commissioning engineers present during sea trial testing of an ice breaker vessel

ABB commissioning engineers present during sea trial testing of an ice breaker vessel
Figure 1 – ABB commissioning engineers present during sea trial testing of an ice breaker vessel

There may be many dependencies that the individual sub suppliers do not control, and you must arrange with their commissioning management as to when the resources are required. As an example, cold commissioning of a generator must take place before the first powered rotation. Such as checking the air gap, inspecting the rotor and coolers, foundations and grounding, bearing lubrication and jack up systems, cooling fans, AVR, as well as any defects after installation.

Then the hot commissioning must wait until the engine team is ready for first turning and the coupling is installed. There may be several days or weeks between these activities, and keeping the generator engineers sitting and waiting will get expensive, fast!

Though, if you are keeping a tight schedule, you will want to ensure they are available as soon as hot commissioning can begin. It’s a real balancing act!

Once all the sub systems are installed and operational, the system integrator must then ensure that these systems operate together as required. This will usually require continued support from the sub suppliers, as settings and configurations must be changed and tuned for overall system operation. Not to mention the risk of things breaking along the way!

These higher level functions to test and confirm are actions such as black out recovery, overall installation harmonic levels, and process operations, such as running of the plant equipment like compressors, or reactor units.

Figure 2 and 3 depict MV cable compartment in an ABB ZS1 11 kV MV AIS. After all MV cables had been installed and terminated, it was found that the phase rotation on every generator was incorrect. The team was faced with two options: reverse rotation between each generator and SWBD, or change the rotation of every motor on the vessel. Fortunately, all but one cable (6 generators) was long enough for swapping.

This copper extension was used temporarily, until a factory approved chamfered copper extension was manufactured.

Figure 2 – MV cable compartment in an ABB ZS1 11 kV MV AIS

MV cable compartment in an ABB ZS1 11 kV MV AIS
Figure 2 – MV cable compartment in an ABB ZS1 11 kV MV AIS

As a system integrator, or sub system integrator, if leading a large group of packages, you will be responsible for the safety of the engineers and technicians working under you. This means you, or someone dedicated to the HMS discipline, should ensure that all staff have a safe working environment, have undergone site specific induction and training, as well as make sure that your engineers understand the PTW, hot work, and lockout procedures for the site.

It may be prudent to undertake safety tours, and continuously asses the site safety situation as events occur such as connection of main power supplies and energization of HV equipment.

Figure 3 – Copper extensions

Copper extensions
Figure 3 – Copper extensions

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1.3 Project Owner

When representing the project owner, you may be on loan from the operations team, or part of a dedicated project team whose internal customer is the operations team. In either case, your concern is to deliver the project to operations so that the business can start to operate the facility and earn revenue. (or provide a non profit public utility, as the case may be) in any case, the project was initiated for a reason, and it’s your duty to ensure the best possible quality, and delivery of a project that fulfills the requirements.

The interaction with the system integrator will be to ensure that they carry out their contractual obligations to deliver a high quality project. This will mean witnessing tests and following up on their progress and challenges throughout the commissioning process.

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Kitab Paul Shah - Author at EEP-Electrical Engineering Portal

Kitab Paul Shah

With a broad experience in the electrical industry, my main focus is on systems engineering. To ensure that an electrical installation functions correctly as a complete system, it is necessary to have an understanding of how each part behaves internally, how they should interact with each other, expected failure modes, and the philosophy of plant operation. Previously I have been heavily involved in marine and offshore projects, both from an engineering and design side, as well as on site installation, start up, and commissioning. This has concerned system philosophy development, procurement of electrical equipment, as well as protection design and coordination for MV and LV SWBDs, rotating machines, drives, generators, AVRs, UPS, and battery energy storage.My education is Electrical Engineering Honours degree from the University of Newcastle, Australia, focusing on power systems, control theory, and power electronics. As well as an apprenticeship and full licencing as an industrial LV and HV electrician for NSW, Australia. Additionally I hold authorisation to perform electrical work in Norway and Sweden.
Profile: Kitab Paul Shah

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