The Commissioning Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1 – Planning

There are several activities that take place off-site prior to the commissioning team mobilizing to site during the design and construction phases of a project.  During design and construction, the schedule and sequence of activities during commissioning are used to define the required construction milestones, in order to plan the project schedule.  The construction milestones then define the required design milestones.  From this sequence of milestones, the project team is then aware of what activities need to be compete and by when to ensure all the project components come together as a final system for testing.

The commissioning team is defined during the design/construction phase, to determine the core members of  the commissioning team as well as the support resources required from elsewhere on the project.  An important group to ensure are part of the commissioning team is the Owner’s operations team, as commissioning activities are the best opportunity for the Ops team to learn about the systems and become familiar with the new operating requirements prior to taking over the systems.  Other members of the commissioning team are the electrical/mechanical/automation key discipline leads, consultant subject matter experts (SME), contractors, vendor reps, and owner’s reps. Roles and Responsibilities of the people who are involved in commissioning is one of the lessons in our courses, check it out here Commissioning Academy: Full System Commissioning

Commissioning documentation is defined and prepared in advance of the commissioning phase.  This includes the test plans and test procedures to be executed during commissioning, and checklists required, as well as drawings.  It is critical that the construction team deliver an accurate set of red-line drawings to the commissioning team in order that the correct installed configuration of equipment in the field is accurately documented.

As construction is completed and equipment installation is complete, the construction and commissioning teams will perform a walkthrough to identify any contract deviations or deficiencies, and list all items on a deficiency tracking list.  Deficiencies are then classified as Type-A, Type-B, or Type-B, identifying when each must be complete.  Type-A is a showstopper, and must be complete before proceeding to the next activity.  Type-B does not need to be addressed immediately and does not impact subsequent activities, but must be rectified prior to handover to the owner.  Type-C deficiencies are minor defects and are agreed by the owner to be rectified after handover to the owner.

Contractor document deliverables are defined, such as O&M manuals and training plans, to be delivered during the commissioning phase.

Any specialized test equipment or special tools are defined and procured prior to commissioning.  If the constructor is required to provide any specialized equipment, this is defined as well.

Methods to gather test results need to be determined, either as data logging systems or manually recorded.  Often there is a significant amount of information produced during commissioning, and a plan to gather, analyze, and report on the test results needs to be determined.

The stakeholders of the project will need to be informed on the commissioning progress, what is going well, and any issues encountered.  What information needs to be conveyed and to who should be agreed to by all stakeholders prior to the start of commissioning.

And last but not least, safety management systems need to be established prior to commencing any commissioning activities, learn more about safety here Safety During Commissioning.  The energy isolation procedures, also known as Lock Out Tag Out (LOTO) process, needs to be established and points of contact identified as responsible for the process.