2015-1 – Blackout on a Segregated Power Plant
Learning From Incidents
A DP 2 vessel carrying out light subsea inspection repair maintenance activities had a blackout and as a consequence had a loss of position (LOP) incident. The vessel was operating in open water and there were no consequences to people, assets or environment associated with this LOP incident. Designs with cross connections across redundant groups are vulnerable to larger failures with the potential to experience serious consequences.
Type of Incident: Power
Cause: Cross connections
DP Pillars: These illustrate the fundamentals of DP technical reliability, they are
• Independence
• Segregation
• Autonomy
• Fault resistance
• Fault ride through
• Differentiation
This incident demonstrates the failure to achieve Segregation. See the MTS DP Committee Design Guidance section 3.3 for more information