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Empower's new training simulator
21 April 2004 - Empower Training from Nottinghamshire, UK has developed a new PC-based simulator for training power plant operators that can be taken anywhere in the world, packed into just three small cases.
It is a portable version of the full-scale simulators used in the UK electricity industry since the 1980s. It offers all the same functions - together with some new ones - and can be set up on any site in less than two hours.
The technology uses a Microsoft Windows platform to model all the systems and processes involved in power generation, providing a realistic environment where operators can learn new techniques and practice them safely. Controls and screens are configured to mimic those on units of up to 660 MW, enabling trainees to see the consequences of their actions in real time - for example, when reacting quickly to a boiler tube leak during a unit run-up.
The software incorporates several hundred component faults and scenarios, allowing Empower's instructors to test the skills of delegates on training courses. As a result, operators gain the ability and confidence to run plant safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.
Empower Training's Paul Tipper says: "The simulator is ideal for teaching the principles of plant operation on coal, oil or gas-fired stations. While we have large fixed simulators at our training centre, it can be time-consuming and expensive for customers to send large numbers of delegates here, but with the portable simulator we can go to them and provide the same level of training on site.
"This is particularly important as we frequently run training courses for power companies overseas as well as all over the UK."
The portable simulator was developed by Paul Tipper, who has more than a decade's worth of experience in power plant training, in conjunction with Mark Woodward from Hytec Electronics of Reading. It runs simultaneously on six PCs, replicating the 'soft desk' control systems now installed in the majority of modern power stations. Traditional 'hard desk' training is provided on Empower's fixed simulators, which have also recently been upgraded. Built-in flexibility allows both portable and fixed simulators to be tailored to suit particular plants and specific scenarios, depending on the customer's needs.
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