Network Security in an Industrial Park

Best Practice Case

Task description

Examination of the network security of energy sources and auxiliary media at two sites in an industrial park, for the following reasons:

• Setting up of a shift operation system on the part of the customer
• Intensive use of, and related increased load on, the supply systems
• Some of the supply facilities had many years' service life

The following supply networks for energy sources and auxiliary media were examined:

• Nitrogen (length approx. 3.5 km, DN 25-100)
• Steam (length approx. 4 km, DN 80-250)
• Condensate (length approx. 3.5 km with approx. 60 condensate lifting units)
• Compressed air (length approx. 4 km, DN 25-100)
• Drinking water/cold water (length approx. 6.5 km, DN 150 as ring main, additional water tower with pipes of approx. 1.7 km)

Our services

• Defining sections for each supply network based on the ground plans of the two sites. Aim: To increase the degree of detail in the actual state by calculating sections, in line with the conveying direction, from the feed-in point to the connected consumers
• Using site-specific checklists to record the actual state and the operating and plant conditions for each medium or each energy source, including the defined sections
• Visual inspection of the on-site media lines together with the client's employees, including photo documentation based on the checklists
• Systematic recording of data for each section as the basis for assessing the entire supply line in accordance with the principles of the risk-based maintenance* approach based on FMEA. (* Risk-based maintenance aims to identify vulnerabilities on the basis of a risk indicator and to derive measures for their removal)
• Using site-specific evaluation systems for defining and documenting influencing factors and for calculating risk indicators
• Deriving and prioritizing recommended actions for repair and maintenance of sections and other supplementary measures
• Documenting risk indicators in accordance with repair or maintenance measures performed using the evaluation system. Aim: Verification and traceability of the effect of the implemented measures

Result for our customer

• First recording of the condition of all sections in the supply networks, including identification of vulnerabilities. Creation, based on this, of a priority list for servicing and maintenance measures
• Increase in the security of supply for all energy and media networks due to early diagnosis of vulnerabilities and initiation of suitable technical and organizational measures
• Benefits to the customer from the BfU evaluation system:
• Assurance of warranted and required product qualities
• Avoidance of outages
• Optimization of maintenance management
• Increase in the cost efficiency of direct and indirect maintenance measures
• Extension of the service life of installations
• Limitation of investment costs

To achieve its aims, a company that proceeds in line with best practice uses innovative and proven systems or processes which also follow a successful model in terms of cost.

Problem

One of the main problems of licensing or approval procedures under environmental legislation is frequently that companies find it hard to predict what documents will need to be submitted, what requirements the authority will place in the course of the procedure, what expert appraisals will need to be submitted and how long it will take for the licence to be available. Environmental legislation frequently makes mention only of "orientation values" with regard to the duration of the procedure. They are "orientation values" because the applicant, even in legal terms, has very few possibilities of enforcing these deadlines. An additional factor in the case of public procedures is that public objections and the mood at corresponding public hearings are very difficult to calculate.

Aim

The aim is to have a project approved cost-efficiently within the targeted time and to counter possible obstacles effectively.

Best practice

The experience gained by our team of engineers, natural scientists, experts and lawyers over a period of four decades means that we can offer you comprehensive and tested methods and approaches and create a customer-oriented project plan for licensing management from them.

We would like to introduce a number of our successive methods and approaches to you briefly at this point:

Examination of licensing requirement

We examine in advance whether your project requires a licence, permit or official notification or assessment of fitness for purpose from a wide variety of legal areas (environmental, building, fire protection or occupational safety legislation). This will give you corresponding legal certainty at an early stage.

Examination of licensability / licensing prerequisites

We carry out an advance examination of the licensability of your project, i.e. whether applicable requirements under environmental legislation or even requirements from building planning legislation (land-use plan, development plan, Land Utilisation Ordinance) can be deemed to have been met or whether re-planning or additional plans are required. We also examine "neighbourhood legislation" (noise, air pollutants, odours, Hazardous Incident Ordinance) to determine whether it gives rise to obstacles to licensing. As a result, complications in the ensuing licensing procedure are avoided.

Project outline, coordination with authorities, application conference

To coordinate the licensing procedure and the application documents to be submitted with the licensing authority, we prepare a project outline including a project presentation, with a view to implementing environmental legislation requirements and envisaged application documents (expert appraisals, data sheets, plans etc.).This enables a target-oriented elaboration of the application documents to be included and a certain commitment with regard to conditions and collateral provisions (limit values etc.) that "emerge" subsequently in the licensing decision to be achieved.

Compilation of the application documents

Application documents do not consist, as is often thought, only of forms that need to be filled in and vary slightly on a country-specific basis. It is more effective to draft an application text, which avails itself of publicly accessible forms to the extent necessary to present data in summary form. A coherent and understandable application text ensures that any doubts or uncertainties that the licensing authority may have with regard to the project evolve into whether a licence/approval should be granted.

Application documents and expert appraisals from "a single source"

Expert appraisals regarding noise, air pollutants (dispersion calculations), documents in respect of environmental compatibility, FFH compatibility, intervention/compensation regulations, species protection, or statements on fire protection etc. also frequently need to be enclosed with a licensing application. This requires the involvement of numerous specialists and assessors and a coordination overhead. We have an "assembly" of all these specialists and assessors, enabling you to receive the necessary services "from a single source". We carry out the necessary coordination activities, thereby avoiding frictional losses.

Advance coordination of building applications and fire protection

Virtually all other official licences and approvals are concentrated in the licensing procedure under immission control legislation, i.e. the BImSchG authority forwards the jointly submitted building application to the building authority. In order to avoid "queries" here, we assist our customers, in particular, in coordinating building application and fire protection documents in advance with the building authority involved.

Provisional decision, application for early start, partial licence or application for immediate execution pursuant to section 80 of the Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung (Code of Administrative Court Procedure - VwGO)

In the context of licence management, we continually examine whether it might make sense to apply initially for a provisional decision pursuant to section 9 of the BImSchG, a partial licence pursuant to section 8 of the BImSchG or an early start pursuant to section 8a of the BImSchG. This ensures that a start can already be made on constructing the installation or the structure even though the actual operating licence has not been granted. In any ensuing court proceedings, our partner, Kanzlei Dr. Poppe - Rechtsanwälte, can apply for immediate execution pursuant to section 80 of the VwGO, to prevent any major halt to the project. These methods frequently result in a gain in time with regard to project implementation, but also force applicants to weigh up the risks (if final licensability is not sufficiently ensured).

Public procedure

In a public procedure, we provide support for our customers by means of information events. Political interests must be identified. In any public hearing, expert answers and discussion management oriented towards the needs of the objectors are required. This enables aversions and fears to be prevented or countered and also ensures that the licensing procedure is not drawn out unnecessarily.

Procedures under nature conservation legislation

Particularly concerns from the point of view of nature conservation legislation (in respect of environmental impact, FFH impact or species protection) can also block or delay a licensing procedure. It is therefore important to examine, and provide an exact assessment of, possible conflicts with protection objectives to enable a structured dialogue with the authorities or nature conservation associations. The frequent result here is that the project is deemed not to impact the actual protection objectives of nature conservation areas or to impact them only in a manner that is so irrelevant that licensability cannot be gainsaid.

Examination of the licensing decision / objection

In the hearing procedure, we examine the draft licensing decision, thereby preventing subsequent problems in the implementation of conditions and collateral provisions. To the extent permitted on a country-specific basis, we object on behalf of our customers and provide assistance with the implementation of company interests.

Legal action

If a legal action is brought in a final step, the lawyers of our partner, Kanzlei Dr. Poppe - Rechtsanwälte, will support you expertly in court proceedings.

Task description

Every occupational accident causes costs for the employer. However, employers often doubt that the introduction of company-internal occupational safety management systems or relevant measures over the lifetime of a project can lower these costs to such an extent that the investments pay for themselves.

Our services

In order to counter these doubts, we present the typically arising costs of an occupational accident below. We then use well-known tools, and one innovative tool, of occupational safety management to examine the extent to which savings on these typical costs are, in fact, possible.

Costs involved in an occupational accident

• Inefficiency-related costs, which can arise due to internal problems in reorganizing work and such like
• Sickness costs in the form of continued payment of remuneration
• Increasing employers' liability insurance association contribution costs in the context of the discount/surcharge procedure

Cost-reduction possibilities:

Occupational safety management systems (classical)

• OHSAS 18001 
• SCC (Safety Certificate for Contractors)
• OHRIS (Occupational Health and Risk Management System)
  

Less well-known tool: The "restricted work" principle

The basic idea behind the "restricted work" principle is to examine whether employees who would normally be regarded as unfit for work due to an injury can be deployed elsewhere in the company. If an examination of this kind resulted in deployments elsewhere appearing conceivable, the employees in question would be made a corresponding offer.

The following must be noted in the event of early return to work despite sick note:

The incapacity certificate provides information about how long the employee is expected to be sick. Within certain limits and if particular prerequisites are complied with, however, a person on sick leave can also work during the attested incapacity for work. However, this is permitted only if it does not have a negative effect on the treatment covered by the employers' liability insurance association or by the association of statutory health insurance physicians. If the question arises as to whether the activity carried out prior to the accident can be resumed early, a doctor, preferably the treating doctor, must be involved. He will then assess whether there is a danger of the insured party's state of health deteriorating as a result. Such an assessment does not, however, change the sick note in any way: it continues to apply.

Furthermore, no employee can be forced to agree to being moved to a restricted job in this way. The employee is merely obliged to accept an activity other than that previously carried out if it is similar to it.

Early assumption of "restricted work" (if the offer is accepted within three days) does not affect the obligation to report an accident (in accordance with Section 193 of the Sozialgesetzbuch VII (Book VII of the German Social Code - SGB). To accelerate the processes and avoid unnecessary complications, an attempt should be made to set up "restricted work jobs" via a voluntary works agreement in accordance with Section 88 No. 1 of the Betriebsverfassungsgesetz (Works Constitution Act - BetrVG).

Result for the customer

The "restricted work principle" is an innovative way of lowering the consequential costs of occupational accidents.

Product Compliance

Best Practice Case

Task description

A host of European and German regulations, such as the REACH Regulation, the RoHS Directive, the Eco-Design Directive, the Energiebetriebene-Produkte-Gesetz (Energy-Using Products Act) etc., require producers to ensure, in addition to product and user safety, that no banned substances are used in their products and substance restrictions are observed. It is becoming more and more frequent for customers to require suppliers and upstream producers to make declarations to the effect that their products are free of harmful substances or comply with the currently allowable limit values and are energy-efficient.

In the past, it was sufficient to provide general answers to customer enquiries regarding harmful substance content and substance requirements. Nowadays, the market demands a detailed analysis of these enquiries, and even reference to environmental certification (Eco Audit/ISO 14001, etc.) is no longer considered sufficient by industry and commerce, as they face the threat of being held liable for issuing hazardous substance/ product guarantees. Producers must therefore answer such enquiries conscientiously, and purchasing and sales must constantly adapt to the new requirements of such regulations in order not to lose customers or market share.

Our services 

BfU supports the client in formulating a product compliance management system that enables him to ensure that his products comply with environmental protection and occupational health and safety regulations as well as requirements under product legislation at both European and German levels. The above-mentioned regulations constitute a part of the producers' need for action regarding the issuance of declarations in respect of substance requirements and the energy/product safety relevance of their products. These and, if applicable, other regulations through to relevant DIN standards are identified together with the client and form the basis of an examination of product components in terms of the declarations of the absence of harmful substances to be issued to third parties.

Objective

The objective is to support the customer in his endeavours to establish an in-house set of tools that can be presented to his customers and suppliers and any monitoring organizations to satisfy the above-mentioned German and European or global substance and product safety requirements.

• Providing assistance with correspondence, particularly with answering customer enquiries in respect of product requirements in terms of material and energy
• Formulating expert appraisals and statements of opinion when evaluating product and substance requirements
• Conducting supplier audits
• Providing continual support in respect of regulation monitoring
• Training the client's personnel

Result for our customers

• Assurance that only legally compliant products enter the market, that harmful substance restrictions and substance bans are respected
• Risk of recall campaigns is minimized
• In-house personnel's lack of certainty in respect of dealing with new European or German product compliance requirements is minimized
• The public image of the company's expertise is strengthened, as customers and clients receive professional answers to their product compliance questions.