GPA has been a specialist provider of hazardous area compliance services for over 30 years.
Our Expertise
- Application of regulatory requirements
- Methods of protection
- Classification of hazardous areas
- Hazardous area equipment selection
- Hazardous area dossiers including development of inspection and maintenance schedules
- ANZEx, AUSEx and IECEx equipment certification schemes
- The use of equipment approved under EU Directive 94/9/EC (ATEX) in Australia
- Design of cabling systems for hazardous area electrical installations
GPA has in depth knowledge and practical experience in hazardous area compliance including:
- Hazardous area classification (explosive gas and dust atmospheres)
- Auditing of equipment located in hazardous areas (inclusive of explosive hazardous areas)
- Remediation of non-compliant electrical installations
- Selection of hazardous area equipment
- Design for hazardous area installations
- The creation of hazardous area dossiers
GPA has provided this specialist service for multiple industrial and defence projects involving extensive application of standards and other industry knowledge. Example projects include the site wide hazardous area upgrade of Adelaide’s two largest waste water treatment plants Bolivar and Glenelg. These upgrades involved the classification, initial inspection, writing of scopes, engagement of installation contractors and installation of replacement equipment to bring the entire sites in line with the applicable standards.
GPA also conducts classification of hazardous areas, auditing of facilities containing hazard area equipment through to hazardous area installation design and equipment selection. Application of AS/NZS 60079 Suite of standards is performed commonly throughout the company, as is remedial work on brownfield non-compliant installations.
Hazardous area dossiers are mandated under the Australian Standards to reflect the installations of electrical equipment which is located in hazardous areas at a plant. The requirements for hazardous area dossiers are specified in Australian Standard AS/NZS 60079.14 and the result is that they often contain thousands of pages (e.g. inspections sheets for each instrument, instrument certificates of compliance, drawings, classifications, spreadsheets etc.).
GPA has developed in house software called “Compile Hazardous Area Dossier” which automatically compiles all of the documents that make up the dossier into a single PDF and automatically hyperlinks each document to a master Ex Register. These hyperlinks allow for quick navigation of what would otherwise be a large paper dossier, which can be time consuming to navigate and can have files removed or lost. The electronic file provides confidence that all documents are compiled into a single dossier and are filed in the correct location. The software performs many double checks when compiling to ensure that no documents are missing and relevant calculations are included.
GPA has a highly experienced and qualified team of over twenty six engineers and technical staff in the provision of design, construction and remediation of electrical equipment in hazardous areas. GPA has provided hazardous area services in every state of Australia and has extensive knowledge of the regulatory requirements.
