S.L. 549.56 Art. 9Emergency considerations.

(1) Permits for combustion plants within the scope of these regulations, shall include conditions on procedures relating to malfunction or break down of the abatement equipment.

(2) In the case of a breakdown the operator shall operate the plant using low polluting fuels and if this is not enough to achieve the relevant limit values, the operator shall reduce or close down operations if a return to normal operation is not achieved within twenty-four hours.

(3) The competent authority shall be notified within forty-eight hours of the occurrence of such breakdown or malfunction.

(4) In no circumstance shall the cumulative duration of unabated operation in any twelve month period exceed one hundred and twenty hours. The Director may allow exceptions to the limits of twenty-four hours and one hundred and twenty hours above in cases where in his judgement:

(a) there is an overriding need to maintain energy supplies; or

(b) the plant with the breakdown would be replaced for a limited period by another plant which would cause an overall increase in emissions.

(5) The Director may allow a suspension for a maximum of six months from the obligation to comply with the emission limit values provided for in regulations 3 and 4 for sulphur dioxide in respect of a combustion plant which to this end normally uses low-sulphur fuel, in cases where the operator is unable to comply with these limit values due to an interruption in the supply of low-sulphur fuel resulting from a serious shortage.

(6) The Director may allow a derogation from the obligation to comply with the emission limit values provided for in regulations 3 and 4 in cases where a plant which normally uses only gaseous fuel, and which would otherwise need to be equipped with a waste gas purification facility, has to resort exceptionally, and for a period not exceeding ten days except where there is an overriding need to maintain energy supplies, to the use of other fuels because of a sudden interruption in the supply of gas. The competent authority shall immediately be informed of each specific case as it arises.

(7) In the cases mentioned in sub-regulations (5) and (6), the operator shall inform the Director in writing of the need to apply for the exemptions provided for in these two sub-regulations as soon as the cases in question arise. In doing so the operator shall forward all the relevant technical information as well as any other information deemed necessary by the competent authority. The competent authority shall, at its discretion issue the temporary derogation according to the provisions of the above mentioned sub-regulations as per notification in Schedule VIII. The competent authority shall publish this notification together with all the information forwarded to it by the operator, on the subsequent issue of the Gazette.