Keywords: Market Research, Process Safety Systems, Safety Instrumented Systems, SIS, BPCS, Industry Standards, Integrated Control and Safety
ARC Advisory Group’s new Process Safety Systems for India Market Research Study shows significant growth in the process safety systems marketplace in India through 2019 in an environment of increasing regulation, standards adoption, and new approaches to process safety. This market is growing much faster than many other sectors of the process automation market.
“The automation market for the three industries that use process safety systems most extensively (oil & gas, chemicals, and refining) will emerge as the major drivers for the safety systems market in the forecast period. Also, end users are looking for an integrated architecture of process safety and process automation in their plants to take advantage of the associated cost savings in operations, engineering, and lifecycle,” according to ARC India Country Manager G. Ganapathiraman and peer author of the report.
Benefits and Challenges of Integrated Control and Safety
Currently, various automation suppliers utilize three different integrated approaches. Levels of integration range from a simple interface to control and safety loops being executed in the same chassis with different processors. Each level of integration has its own associated benefits and challenges. According to international safety standards such as IEC 61508, IEC 61511, and ISA84, process safety systems and basic process control systems (BPCS) must remain logically separated. An integrated approach that complies with the appropriate standards can reduce installed, operational, and training costs while providing more information about the safety of the process.
Adoption of Stricter Safety Practices
Developing economies such as India are swiftly adopting new international safety standards and making significant investments to provide a comparable level of process safety already found in more mature markets such as North America and Western Europe. Process safety system suppliers must be prepared to provide an increased level of engineering support and training for end users in these emerging markets to make up for the shortfall of qualified personnel.
The Challenge of Migrating the Installed Base
Just as there is a major effort underway to modernize the aging installed base of basic process control systems, end users are finding that a similar issue exists with safety systems. Many legacy safety systems are based on old relay-based technology. The physical infrastructure of these systems from wiring to logic solvers is rapidly approaching the end of its useful life. This drives a new wave of modern safety system adoption that is having a big impact on the safety culture and philosophy of operating companies.
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