Elements and Performance Criteria

RANGE STATEMENT
The Range Statement relates to the unit of competency as a whole. It allows for different work environments and situations that may affect performance. Bold italicised wording, if used in the Performance Criteria, is detailed below. Add any essential operating conditions that may be present with training and assessment depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts.
Codes of practice/ standards
Where reference is made to industry codes of practice, and/or Australian/international standards, the latest version must be used.
Context
This competency unit includes the heating/cooling loads of all processing equipment and requires the quantitative determination of loads. This competency applies to all sectors within the chemical, hydrocarbons and oil refining industry.
Heat transfer modes include:
conduction
convection (forced and natural)
radiation
combined conduction/convection.
Sources of heating/cooling include:
chemical reaction
water cooling
air cooling
steam heating (calculations for saturated steam only)
hot fluid (eg oil) heating.
Health, safety and environment (HSE)
All operations to which this unit applies are subject to stringent health, safety and environment requirements, which may be imposed through State or Federal legislation, and these must not be compromised at any time. Where there is an apparent conflict between Performance Criteria and HSE requirements, the HSE requirements take precedence.

EVIDENCE GUIDE
The Evidence Guide provides advice on assessment and must be read in conjunction with the Performance Criteria, Required Skills and Knowledge, the Range Statement and the Assessment Guidelines for the Training Package.

Overview of assessment
Assessment of this unit should include demonstrated competence on actual plant and equipment in a work environment. The unit will be assessed in as holistic a manner as is practical and may be integrated with the assessment of other relevant units of competency.
This unit may be appropriately assessed using a special project based on an actual plant. This unit of competency requires a significant body of knowledge which will be assessed through questioning and the use of what-if scenarios both on the plant and off the plant.

Critical aspects for assessment and evidence required to demonstrate competency in this unit
Competence must be demonstrated in the ability to complete an energy balance in a structured way, taking real data from an operating plant.
Consistent performance should be demonstrated. In particular look to see that:
realistic boundaries are drawn for the energy balance which align with practical sources of data from the plant
data is collected from the plant with minimum disruption to production
theoretical and practical requirements for the energy balance are consistent
the energy balance data is used to identify and contribute to solutions for plant problems.
This will typically be assessed by one or more energy balance projects on an operating plant. One complex energy balance, or a number of simple energy balances, are required to demonstrate competence.

Context of and specific resources for assessment
Assessment will require access to an operating plant over an extended period of time, or a suitable method of gathering evidence of operating ability over a range of situations. A bank of scenarios/case studies/what-ifs will be required as will a bank of questions which will be used to probe the reasoning behind the observable actions.

Method of assessment
In all plants it may be appropriate to assess this unit concurrently with relevant teamwork and communication units.

Guidance information for assessment
Assessment processes and techniques must be culturally appropriate and appropriate to the oracy, language and literacy capacity of the assessee and the work being performed.