Renewals & Re-certification Examinations

The renewal requirement are to promote continuing education and keep current with latest inspection development and practices. We believe that it is important that persons involved in pressure equipment safety continue to keep current in both technical and legal requirements. We do expect, and the legislation requires, that owners ensure that their employees are competent. The renewal requirements reinforce the expectations to the inspectors and provide ABSA with some evidence that this is happening.

An In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Certificate of Competency is issued for a period of five (5) years and is required to be renewed for continuous certification. A certificate of competency will no longer be valid if it is allowed to expire. If the certificate is not valid, it is ILLEGAL to inspect or certify pressure equipment in any capacity allowed by the certificate.

Alberta Certified In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Online Directory is available to check for valid inspector certification.

It is the responsibility of the certificate holder to renew his/her certificate for continued certification. ABSA will be sending reminder letters to certificate holders nine (9) weeks before the certificate expires.

The certificate holder should submit the completed renewal form, AB-98, together with the renewal fee stated on the form, at least 21 days before the certificate’s expiry date to initiate the renewal process.

This examination refreshes the In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector about the Act and regulation requirements and various ABSA in-service pressure equipment inspector safety programs.

This examination is an on-line, open book examination based on the Safety Codes Act and Regulations, AB-506 (Inspection and Servicing Requirements for In-service Pressure Equipment), AB-513 (Pressure Equipment Repair and Alteration Requirements) and Information Bulletins issued by the Administrator, available on ABSA’s website.

The examination consists of 25 multiple choice questions.

The examination will be scheduled online, and the applicant will be contacted by e-mail with the login instruction for the website testing. Once registered, the applicant will have 30 days to log in and activate the account. If they do not activate their account within the 30 days of receiving the login instructions, the login will become invalid and they will have to re-apply to write the examination.

The applicant will be able to access their exam once they have activated their account. The time allowed for the examination is 3 hours within a 24 hour total time period. The 24 hour clock starts immediately once the exam’s “Start” button has been pressed. The applicant has 3 hours (within a 24 hour time period)to complete the exam. The applicant can sign out from the exam and sign back in multiple times within the 24 hour period. If they wait and re-start the examination too close to the 24 hour expiration time, the examination time will not be extended beyond the 24 hour limit. If the time expires before they have completed all of the questions, the examination will be closed and marked. The official mark will be confirmed after verification by ABSA.

The applicant must  obtain 80% of the marks to pass the examination. There is only one right answer to a question. The In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Re-certification Examination is the same for the three types of certification, In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Certificate of Competency; In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Certificate of Competency (Pressure Vessels and Pressure Piping) and In-Service Pressure Equipment Inspector Certificate of Competency (Pressure Piping).

Applicants who do not meet the re-certification requirements, unless they have reasons and supporting documents satisfactory to the Chief Inspector and Administrator, may be required to successfully challenge an Inspector Certification Examination.

The fee for writing the re-certification examination is included in the renewal fee. However, if an applicant fails his/her examination, the applicant will be required to re-submit an application to write the Inspector Certification Examination and pay an examination fee as stated on the renewal form to try the on-line examination again.