Shutdowns, Turnarounds, and Outages (STO) are commonly used terms, often interchangeably, to describe a planned or unplanned period of time in which a plant/facility, unit, or piece of equipment is out of service. In many process industries (e.g., refining, petrochemicals, chemicals, power generation, etc.), equipment operates 24/7, making it difficult to perform necessary inspection and maintenance work without taking said equipment offline. For this reason, facilities routinely schedule turnarounds, where a section of an industrial plant or the entire facility is shut down to perform major maintenance, overhaul, and/or repair operations, as well as to inspect, test, and replace process materials and equipment. These planned events also provide owner/operators with the opportunity to perform debottlenecking, process upgrades, and capital project improvements while the unit or facility is offline. The primary purpose of turnarounds is to conduct the activities necessary to keep the plant running safely, reliably, and as efficiently as possible.
Sometimes equipment goes offline unexpectedly or operators are forced to shut down equipment or an entire facility due to unforeseen events like power outages, fires, mechanical failures, weather events, or losses of primary containment (LOPC). These unplanned shutdowns or outages may or may not require immediate action, depending on the circumstances.
The cost of a shutdown, turnaround, or outage can be substantial, so owner/operators strive to optimize planning and work whenever possible. Far in advance of a turnaround, operators begin planning schedules and coordinating resources to ensure that personnel, budgets, equipment, and access points are available to accomplish the turnaround objectives safely and efficiently. The better prepared owner/operators are for STOs, the greater their ability to minimize facility downtime.
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