The Energy Institute (EI) is the UK-based professional body for people who work in energy, from oil and gas through power and renewables. It formed in 2003 when the Institute of Petroleum merged with the Institute of Energy, and it is a registered charity with a Royal Charter. Think of it as part engineering society, part publisher. For process safety people the publisher side is what matters, because the EI writes practical, industry-built guidance that UK and international operators lean on much the way US plants lean on American Petroleum Institute (API) recommended practices.
Key Points
- Its best-known code for our world is EI 15, the model code of safe practice for hazardous area classification around equipment handling flammable fluids, used across the petroleum industry worldwide.
- Its High Level Framework for Process Safety Management (2010) is a standard UK reference, and the UK’s Chemical and Downstream Oil Industries Forum (CDOIF) cites it in its guidance on managing installed safety instrumented systems.
- It also took over BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy in 2023. Its newest process safety title is EI 3314, the second edition of its guidance on passive fire protection for process and storage plant, published in October 2026.
Example
A UK refinery classifying the hazardous areas around a new tank farm draws its zone boundaries using EI 15, then selects electrical equipment and locates ignition sources to suit each zone. A US site doing the same job would typically reach for API RP 500 or RP 505 and NFPA 497 instead.
Cited Sources
- Energy Institute – EI Model code of safe practice Part 15: Area classification for installations handling flammable fluids
- Energy Institute – Process safety publications
- Energy Institute – EI 3314 Guidance on passive fire protection for process and storage plant and equipment, 2nd edition
- CDOIF, Guideline – Functional Safety Management of Installed Safety Instrumented Systems