[Varley]

Very much agreed.

At the very least the Emergency generator should be run routinely at a load representing that expected in an emergency until all parameters have reached stable and acceptable values (especially the uptake) and not simply every Saturday to check it starts and excites.

There are easy ways in which this can be achieved within the rules which allow for occasional use for the emergency set for other purposes (and I would favour one simpler than reverse feeding of the MSB). It need be no higher in capacity than the load balance demanded for emergency duty.

Additionally the configuration of loads should be such that the starting test is one simply of the feeder being opened and the shut down being under manual only command. At leas three failures encountered have been in specialist test features and in the layer of automation implemented to automatically return the emergency bus to main supply after MSB power has been restored (the latter put a con-bulker aground in the St. Lawrence).

One must also ensure that the ESB is considered as a failure mode in its own right. It is pointless to have an essential service dependent on some principal or auxiliary service only provided from the ESB. Such (now excluded by regulation) deprived us of bridge steering when the ESB burned down (with Sunderland Forge it was usually the mains but the Nordic Crusader/Cast Fulmar made it the exception) however there will be others (a series of LPG tankers had auxiliary generator luboil pumps (which required them to run before starting was allowed) powered exclusively by the ESB.

If only I had one more newbuilding exercise. The network arrangements would have been have been perfect (well, obviously not, but after 30 years they would have been much better than what I allowed at the beginning - which included the conbulker above).