A Minnesota compliance pathway that lets a qualifying high-pressure plant run on continuous remote monitoring by a licensed operating engineer, plus one daily in-person visit — in place of constant, 24/7 on-site attendance. Trap Energy designed and commissioned the state’s first and only approved plant of this kind.
It is not “unattended.” A qualifying plant is monitored continuously by a licensed operating engineer and observed in person once each day. What changes is that it no longer requires a full around-the-clock on-site rotation — and that distinction is the whole point.
Minnesota sizes boiler-plant attendance by State HP (Minn. R. 5225.1180). Above 500 State HP, a plant normally requires constant, round-the-clock attendance by licensed operating engineers. Subpart 5 permits a qualifying plant to operate under an approved remote monitoring program instead — continuous monitoring by a licensed operating engineer with a single daily on-site observation.
Minnesota licenses operating engineers by statute and sets a plant’s attendance tier from State HP. That same framework defines a clear, approvable pathway to reduce on-site attendance with qualifying equipment and monitoring — a pathway most states simply do not have.
This part is arithmetic, not marketing.
The requirement this replaces is a 24/7 on-site licensed rotation — roughly five fully-burdened licensed positions to recruit, retain, and cover, in a labor market that increasingly cannot supply them. The Unoccupied Boiler Plant pathway meets the state’s attendance requirement without carrying that rotation. It is coverage for a requirement you may not be able to staff — not a reduction of the team you have.
High-pressure steam plants where round-the-clock licensed staffing is costly, hard to fill, or both:
Start with a Steam System CRES Score. Our assessment scores your plant on Compliance, Reliability, Energy, and Safety — and screens whether it qualifies to reduce its attendance requirement.
This page describes a compliance pathway established by the State of Minnesota (Minn. R. 5225.1180) applied with qualifying equipment; it is not a workaround. Trap Energy Solutions — Veteran-Owned. Minnesota’s first and only approved Unoccupied Boiler Plant.
