OPERATOR TRAINING simulator (OTS) technology is becomingly increasingly important in the drive to maximize personnel, project and process performance, as the experiences of vendors including Emerson Process Management, Schneider Electric and Honeywell Process Solutions show.

A major refinery in Texas typifies what OTS can deliver. The site, which had converted key process areas to Emerson Process Management’s PlantWeb architecture featuring the DeltaV distributed control system (DCS), used OTS to prepare employees with the knowledge of how to get the greatest performance and cost benefits from its new system.

Emerson’s educational services experts delivered a hands-on, process-specific training program; simulations

exposed operators to what they would experience in their actual control room and allowed them to practice and respond to process upsets. This enabled the operators to gain confidence and experience in an offline, no-risk environment prior to actual plant operation.

The refinery reported the training program exceeded all its expectations and was crucial to improving operational readiness and results. The OTS is an integral part of plant life now, providing training for new operators and refresher training and practice for experienced ones in handling potential incidents.

Within DeltaV’s “simulate” environment, operators get to use exactly the same configurations they would use in a real system. “This is very unusual in the market

Training Simulators Make Real DifferenceOperators gain proficiency faster and safely experience abnormal situations

By Seán Ottewell, Editor at Large

Source: Emerson Process Management.

Electronic permissions to Emerson Process Management from Chemical ProcessingFebruary © 2016 PUTMAN (Excerpted)

as most other DCS systems have to be used in an offline environment and require modification, translation, etc.,” notes Mark O’Rosky, OTS engineering manager, process systems and solutions, Round Rock, Texas.

Also unusual, he says, is Emerson’s use of an open environment for process simulation; pretty much any modeling software package — indeed any software with an OPC interface — can talk with DeltaV.

The trainer environment is another differentiator, he adds. Many other DCS companies have process simulation packages that include, for example, instructor function pieces for grading/scoring scenarios and student monitoring; so, a user must create a simulation package linked to the vendor’s own software. “We draw a different boundary at Emerson. We have created a trainer environment so you can do scenarios/grading, etc. within the DCS environment… We can use anybody’s process simulation package — and keep the instructor/student functionality in the DCS environment. So the training environment is in the same DCS for both the trainer and the student, i.e., they use the same screen [Figure 1]. That’s a very big thing for us,” adds O’Rosky.

THE VALUE OF VIRTUALIZATION

Virtualization, which has become increasingly popular for automation projects (see: “Chemical Makers Embrace Virtualization,” http://goo.gl/qPruRm), also can impact training. For example, a company might have difficulty justifying an OTS for just one small gas plant. However, if it has four or five similar plants, a single trainer hosted in central engineering can support all the units; operators at any facility can access it simply by logging in.

Large sites also can benefit. For instance, in the past a chemical complex with numerous processing units might have had a training system for each. However, with a virtualized training system, you can train operators on any unit individually or on any combination of units. This gives users huge flexibility in terms of training.

“It means that you can achieve in a morning and an afternoon what previously could have taken a week. And utilization of the trainer has gone right up, too. For example, at one site a chemical company is closing in on 3,000 hours of operator training with the simulator being used at all hours, including evenings

and weekends,” notes O’Rosky.This also is helping to tackle the demographic challenge

posed by the industry’s aging workforce (see: “Plants Grapple with Graying Staff,” http://goo.gl/ZzGWDq). Emerson’s own research shows that training an operator to the appropriate level can take 6–7 years. Simulation speeds this up substantially, it says.

THE FUTURE

The benefits of OTS, while now increasingly well documented, likely will grow further as the technology continues to evolve.

For instance, Emerson is developing internal tools that can take a database and create tie-back modules in just a couple of weeks. “Quicker model incorporation shortens all delivery times,” notes O’Rosky.

So-called multi-purpose dynamic or lifecycle simulation also is receiving attention. The aim is for a simulation model to be able to handle the whole project lifecycle rather than discrete parts of it. “We’ve already seen that simulation software is being used for design, checkout, training, optimization, etc. So we want to increase the value that this simulation can provide. This is happening now, notably with large oil and gas companies such as Statoil and Shell taking the lead,” he says.

Figure 1. Both trainer and student use the same screens in Emerson’s OTS approach. Source: Emerson Process Management.

KEY ELEMENT

Source: Emerson Process Management.

Electronic permissions to Emerson Process Management from Chemical ProcessingFebruary © 2016 PUTMAN (Excerpted)