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Use this practical PSSR checklist to verify equipment, safeguards, procedures, training, isolations, and emergency readiness before startup.

Pre-Startup Safety Review: A Practical PSSR Checklist

The project team has finished construction. Production wants the unit online. The control system shows green lights. During the field walkdown, an operator notices that a relief-valve isolation is shut and still carries a construction tag.
A Pre-Startup Safety Review (PSSR) creates a formal go or no-go decision before hazardous material or energy enters new or modified equipment. It verifies that the installed plant matches the approved design and that people can operate it without relying on unfinished work or verbal promises.

Download: MMRisk Pre-Startup Safety Review Checklist (PDF) or use the print-friendly version.

Run a PSSR at the right trigger point

Use a PSSR before:

  • commissioning a new process, unit, tank, or utility system;
  • starting modified equipment after a Management of Change;
  • restarting after a turnaround, extended shutdown, major repair, or mothball period;
  • introducing a new hazardous material or operating envelope;
  • returning equipment after an incident or integrity failure.
    The review should happen late enough for the team to inspect the completed work, but early enough to fix defects without production pressure controlling the decision.

PSSR is more than a construction punch list

A construction punch list focuses on incomplete work. A PSSR asks whether the process can start without exposing people, the public, the environment, or equipment to uncontrolled risk.
The team needs evidence across four areas:

  1. Plant: equipment and construction match design.
  2. Protection: safeguards, trips, relief paths, and emergency systems work.
  3. People: operators and maintainers understand the process and changes.
  4. Procedures: current instructions cover startup, normal operation, shutdown, upset, maintenance, and emergency response.

Who should join the review?

Match the team to the startup scope. A typical PSSR includes:

  • an operations representative who will accept the plant;
  • process, mechanical, electrical, and instrument engineers;
  • maintenance and inspection personnel;
  • process safety or SHEQ support;
  • commissioning and project representatives;
  • contractor specialists where their work affects startup readiness.
    Give one person authority to stop the startup. The chair should record decisions, action owners, due dates, and the evidence reviewed.

The practical PSSR checklist

1. Approved scope and change control

  • Does the installed scope match the approved design and MOC?
  • Have reviewers assessed every deviation from the approved package?
  • Are temporary systems, hoses, bypasses, overrides, and jumpers listed?
  • Have required HAZOP, LOPA, QRA, or relief reviews closed their pre-start actions?
  • Do current P&IDs and cause-and-effect charts reflect the plant?

2. Mechanical completion and containment

Walk the equipment. Do not approve from a meeting room.

  • Verify equipment tags, line numbers, flow direction, materials, gaskets, and valve orientation.
  • Confirm pressure testing, leak testing, flushing, cleaning, drying, and reinstatement.
  • Check flange records, spade lists, temporary strainers, vents, drains, bleeders, caps, and plugs.
  • Confirm that inspection findings and quality-control records meet acceptance criteria.
  • Identify open construction work that can affect containment or access.

3. Relief, isolation, and safeguarding

  • Is there an open path from protected equipment to each relief device?
  • Are relief valves installed with correct set pressures and certification?
  • Have trips, alarms, interlocks, permissives, shutdown valves, and gas detectors passed functional testing?
  • Are bypasses and overrides removed or controlled through a signed register?
  • Do emergency shutdown and depressurisation systems operate from the required locations?
    The SAPIA PSSR checklist gives useful South African petroleum-sector prompts for pressure-envelope assurance, spading, trips, flanges, and startup organisation.

4. Procedures and process safety information

  • Are startup, shutdown, normal, abnormal, and emergency procedures approved and available?
  • Do procedures state operating limits, warning signs, consequences, and corrective action?
  • Are chemical data, equipment files, electrical classifications, and safe operating envelopes current?
  • Can operators find the latest documents during a shift?
  • Have teams removed superseded copies from the field?

5. Training and staffing

  • Have operators trained on the installed plant and revised procedures?
  • Did training include alarms, trips, manual actions, sampling, line-up, and emergency response?
  • Has the team tested understanding rather than collecting attendance signatures?
  • Are competent people available for startup, including maintenance and instrument support?
  • Does the shift plan allow enough field coverage for line walks and abnormal conditions?

6. Permit, isolation, and simultaneous operations

  • Have teams closed construction permits or transferred them into the operating permit system?
  • Are lockout, tagout, electrical isolation, and process isolation records reconciled?
  • Could scaffolding, lifting, hot work, excavation, or contractor activity interfere with startup?
  • Has the permit office identified conflicting work and restricted access?
  • Is there a controlled plan for work that must continue after startup?
    See our permit-to-work guide for the controls that should remain active once the project hands the plant to operations.

7. Emergency readiness

  • Does the emergency plan reflect the new material, inventory, layout, and scenarios?
  • Can alarms, communications, firewater, deluge, extinguishers, eyewashes, showers, and evacuation routes support the startup?
  • Have emergency teams received updated information?
  • Are spill kits, breathing apparatus, detection equipment, and specialist resources available?
  • Have local or mutual-aid responders received information where required?

8. Final field verification

The final walkdown should follow the process path from receipt to discharge. Ask an operator to explain the line-up, startup sequence, first alarm response, and emergency shutdown. Compare the answer with the installed equipment and procedure.
Photographs help document status, but they do not replace signatures from the responsible disciplines.

Classify actions before startup

Use clear action categories:

  • Category A: Must close before introducing hazardous material or energy.
  • Category B: May close after startup under a documented temporary control and due date.
  • Category C: Improvement that does not affect startup safety.
    Do not move an action from A to B to protect a production date. Record the technical basis, compensating control, owner, and approval for every deferral.

The startup authorization

The operations manager or designated accountable person should sign the final authorization only after:

  • the team has verified Category A closure;
  • documents and training are complete;
  • unresolved work has an approved control;
  • the plant condition matches the startup procedure;
  • emergency and maintenance support are ready.
    A signed checklist without field evidence gives weak assurance. A disciplined PSSR gives the startup team a shared, tested picture of the plant they are about to operate.
    MMRisk can tailor PSSR systems, facilitate operational-readiness reviews, and support hazard studies for new or modified facilities. Contact MMRisk before a high-hazard startup or restart.

Related resources

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