GE Vernova completes latest RBI-580 and RBI-581 certifications to better mitigate risks

RBI is an approach integrated into maintenance programs to assess the likelihood and consequences of failure and to optimize inspection rigor based on overall risk.

Why is this important? To accelerate the energy transition within your asset-intensive firm, ensuring maximum levels of safety and compliance of your fixed equipment is critical. You also want to make sure you have the right software to help users with leak mitigation, risk assessment and management, and a holistic improvement of overall plant safety.

Yet the credibility of any Risk-Based Inspection application hinges on the reliability of the calculations based on which inspection plans are finalized.

To have a reliable RBI application, these are the two core elements:

1. An industry-proven methodology, or RAGAGEP (Recognized and Generally Accepted Good Engineering Practices).
2. A periodic certification program by an independent industry principal. This will ensure all calculations align with the proven methodology.

To ensure asset reliability and improve confidence for our end users, GE Vernova has completed two key certifications for its RBI calculation engines:

• RBI-580 Recertification from exida — a leading product certification and knowledge company specializing in automation system safety, alarm management, cybersecurity, and availability.
• RBI-581 Certification from Pinnacle —a leading services provider for reliability and risk assessments across complex process facilities such as refineries, chemical plants, and mining.

GE Vernova’s Risk-Based Inspection module has consistently aligned with recommendations from the American Petroleum Institute (API) — the largest U.S. trade association for the oil and natural gas industry.

Risk-Based Inspection is a method evolved mostly around API’s recommended practices 580 and 581, originally developed in the 90s.

“Risk-based inspections are becoming increasingly required in the industry in order to ensure equipment safety and availability,” said Dave Butler of exida.

“The exida certification ensures that the RBI-580 Fixed Equipment Criticality Engine will help users to implement industry best practices for a Risk-Based Inspection program as defined by the API-580 standard. In addition, the certification ensures a high quality of the RBI-580 Fixed Equipment Criticality Engine by assessing that it was developed using a product development process that meets relevant SIL 1 requirements from IEC 61508.”

API-581 has continued to make controlled changes to the standards based on a stringent ballot program. These changes have been reflected as addendums to the main edition – the latest version, API-581, 3rd edition, 2nd addendum.

With GE Vernova’s latest Asset Performance Management version release (V5), our RBI-581 solution is compliant with the latest version of API-581 and has now been certified by Pinnacle. Since the inception of RBI-581 in 2016, our application has been certified by independent industry experts every 3 years to ensure customers have the best tools to transition from a time-based to a risk-based approach.

“API codes, standards, and recommended practices are developed by groups of industry specialists from major oil and petrochemical companies to create industry best practices that improve equipment safety and availability,” said Lynne Kaley of Pinnacle, who has been working with API since the early 1990s to develop RBI methodologies.

“GE Vernova’s APM has continued to reflect the document changes to API RP 581 and has recently made the changes reflected in the Third Edition, Second Addendum. The RBI-581 software module has been certified by us every 3 years as a part of an independent third-party review and has been proven to reproduce the 581 calculations as per the latest published version of API 581.”

APM Mechanical Integrity equips asset-centric organizations with an integrated set of tools to carry out risk calculations, analyze the remaining usage of assets, optimize inspection strategies, and streamline compliance.

This includes four modules:

1. Risk-Based inspection (RBI)
2. Inspection Management
3. Thickness Monitoring
4. Compliance Management

These are all aligned to optimize a Mechanical Integrity program set up at your facility.

Product capabilities include qualitative and quantitative risk calculations (RBI-580/RBI-581) and inspection planning to manage the integrity of equipment throughout its entire lifecycle.

Specific to the RBI module, users can:

• Define corrosion loops & integrity operating windows (IOWs).
• Assign potential degradation mechanisms (PDMs).
• Rank equipment based on risk, using globally accepted methodologies such as the API.

From an RBI-581 standpoint, the risk calculator enables improved inspection planning. It provides clear insight into how assets are performing, specific recommendations to improve asset performance, and a timeline to avoid unnecessary shutdowns. The solution effectively quantifies risks and incorporates the previous calculations of API-RP 581 recommendations. Through this, it helps industrial organizations achieve mechanical integrity excellence.

Some of the key updates in our latest release V5 w.r.t the RBI-581, 2nd edition include:

• Corrosion adjustment factors for calculated corrosion rates.
• User-defined age adjustment for external damage.
• Coating age calculation for coating failures.
• Criteria for release type (Continuous. vs Instantaneous).
• Strength ratio calculation for specified minimum thickness.
• Atmospheric tank bottom thinning & lining calculations.
• Susceptibility calculations for chloride stress corrosion cracking and alkaline stress corrosion cracking (CLSCC and ACSCC) models.

Vipin Nair, Director of Product Management at GE Vernova, said: “As a leader in APM and Mechanical Integrity software, compliance with API-580 & API-581 standards shows our commitment to our customers who rely on our solution.

“We value our customers’ feedback, and through our certifications with exida and Pinnacle, we’re able to extend enhanced mechanical integrity support to those who need it.” 

To learn more about APM Mechanical Integrity, please check out our interactive APM Integrity demo or read our latest mechanical integrity blog.