FCS recently completed development of a 3-week integrated operations training program for the Alabama Electric Cooperative McWilliams Generating Station simulator. The training program was designed as a guide for training operating technicians on the McWilliams Simulator manufactured by Siemens and ESSCOR. The simulator is a near replica of the McWilliams Station control room and is installed with a duplicate of the actual plant Siemens Teleperm XP DCS. The simulated DCS controls use a new advanced product, TXP-SIM™, developed by ESSCOR that allows the actual plant control screens, control algorithms and controls database to be incorporated into the simulator.
This approach allows the operators to manipulate replica controls and allows the simulator to be maintained current with the plant as changes are made, thus leading to a very realistic training environment. The training program is designed to support consistent and quality training and includes a comprehensive student training manual, instructor and malfunction lesson plans, and performance-based exercises ensuring that all plant personnel can be trained in the most realistic manner possible leading to a more productive workforce.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Central Illinois Public Service selected FCS to develop and instruct a simulator training program for their Coffeen Generating Station. This station is a 360 MW once-through coal-fired generating station. FCS developed the training program to comply with the EPRI Guide lines for Fossil Simulator Training. Two training programs were developed. The first, a Systems Review Course, was designed to prepare trainees for simulator training. This course can also be used as a stand-alone plant systems course for auxiliary operators and other plant personnel. The second course was a comprehensive simulator operations training program designed to prepare control operator candidates for the control room position.
FCS developed a comprehensive text suitable for use in the instruction of both courses. Instructor support materials included lesson plans, simulated plant systems operating procedures, overall plant startup and shutdown procedures, and overhead transparencies for use in presenting the Systems Review Course and classroom portion of the simulator operations training course. FCS validated the training material by making pilot presentations of both courses with Coffeen Station training and senior operations personnel serving as trainee/evaluators. The quality of the operating procedures incorporated in the program was ensured through validation by senior operations personnel using the simulator. The performance-based technique used to develop the training programs ensures that the CIPS Coffeen Station will receive maximum benefit from their simulator investment.
Fossil Consulting Services (FCS) assisted the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) in their procurement and associated training programs for their Chalk Point and Morgantown Generating Station simulators. These simulators include full-scale, high-fidelity first principles models of the two once-through supercritical plants on a single suite of hardware.
The simulator was built by Foxboro and ESSCOR and includes FSIM™, an advanced product that allows the entire Foxboro control system, including control blocks, graphics, and data-base, to work in a simulator environment. This will allow PEPCO to keep the simulator current with the plant controls and work in the control system engineering environment on the simulator, greatly expanding the utilization of the simulator beyond operator training.
PEPCO selected FCS to serve as a consultant in their simulator procurement effort based on many successful years of assistance by FCS principals in simulator procurement and training and the direct experience of developing the procurement specification for this simulator. FCS developed a simulator training program and trained the PEPCO simulator instructors. Other areas of assistance included design reviews, factory inspections, validation of plant models to plant data, validation of specification requirements, and factory acceptance testing (FAT). FCS is presently supporting PEPCO providing similar services on their Dickerson Simulator Project.