**2.1.1 Full-scope**

A full-scope simulator can be defined as an exact duplicate of a power plant control room, containing duplicates of all actual controls, instruments, panels, and indicators. The unit responses simulated on this apparatus are identical in time and indication to the responses received in the actual plant control room under similar conditions. A significant portion of the expense encountered with this type of simulator is the high fidelity simulation software that must be developed to drive it (ISA, 1993). Due to the HMI of the trainee must be a "copy" of the control room of the power plant, it was ordinary that a simulator had the same control boards of the actual unit, which naturally involved a big expense for its construction. Figure 2 shows two control board simulators, for a 300 MW fossil fuel power plant (left side) and for a 350 MW fossil fuel power plant (right side).

On the other hand, in recent years the power increase of computers, their reliability and variety of graphical interfaces (Yamamori et al., 2000), added to the continued search to cut costs caused a new technological trend. In this trend, the power plants have replaced their former control boards with a local area network of Personal Computers (PC) with graphical user interfaces. In this way, new or modernized power plants have a HMI, where all the supervising and operation actions are carried out through interactive processes diagrams.

Naturally, the operators of these plants need a suitable training because they face a complete change in their operation paradigm, and because of this, the training simulators also require a HMI as the one in the actual plant, an example of these simulators is in Figure 3.

The technological revolution affected the hardware and software components of the simulator, for instance, Zabre and Román (2008) describe the evolution on hardware, operating systems and software for the power plant simulators developed by the Electric Research Institute of Mexico in the last 30 years. Table 1 shows the main features of the hardware-software platforms for different simulators. In fact, this revision is focused over the Mexican market but it is very representative of the world scale evolution of the hardware-software platforms for simulators. The typical architecture of this type of simulators is given in section 4.

A full-scope simulator can be defined as an exact duplicate of a power plant control room, containing duplicates of all actual controls, instruments, panels, and indicators. The unit responses simulated on this apparatus are identical in time and indication to the responses received in the actual plant control room under similar conditions. A significant portion of the expense encountered with this type of simulator is the high fidelity simulation software that must be developed to drive it (ISA, 1993). Due to the HMI of the trainee must be a "copy" of the control room of the power plant, it was ordinary that a simulator had the same control boards of the actual unit, which naturally involved a big expense for its construction. Figure 2 shows two control board simulators, for a 300 MW fossil fuel power plant (left side)

On the other hand, in recent years the power increase of computers, their reliability and variety of graphical interfaces (Yamamori et al., 2000), added to the continued search to cut costs caused a new technological trend. In this trend, the power plants have replaced their former control boards with a local area network of Personal Computers (PC) with graphical user interfaces. In this way, new or modernized power plants have a HMI, where all the supervising and operation actions are carried out through interactive

Naturally, the operators of these plants need a suitable training because they face a complete change in their operation paradigm, and because of this, the training simulators also require

The technological revolution affected the hardware and software components of the simulator, for instance, Zabre and Román (2008) describe the evolution on hardware, operating systems and software for the power plant simulators developed by the Electric Research Institute of Mexico in the last 30 years. Table 1 shows the main features of the hardware-software platforms for different simulators. In fact, this revision is focused over the Mexican market but it is very representative of the world scale evolution of the hardware-software platforms for simulators. The typical architecture of this type of

a HMI as the one in the actual plant, an example of these simulators is in Figure 3.

**2.1.1 Full-scope** 

processes diagrams.

Fig. 2. Control board simulators.

simulators is given in section 4.

and for a 350 MW fossil fuel power plant (right side).

Fig. 3. Simulator with interactive process diagrams.


Table 1. Evolution of hardware and software platforms.

Typical operations to carry out by the trainees in a simulator are:


Fossil Fuel Power Plant Simulators for Operator Training 97

A different approach for a simulator is the proposed by Pevneva et al. (2007), these authors present a unified training simulator for the personnel of the boiler-turbine and chemical

Compact simulators are frequently generics, this means they reproduce the behaviour of a specific power plant, but the rated power and the HMI for the trainee no necessarily are the same of the actual plant. However, they include mathematical modelling of wide scope which allows simulating plant conditions from cold iron up to nominal power. In this way they are mainly utilized to train novice operators and field personnel. Fray and Divakaruni (1995) claim this kind of simulators can be parameterized with unit-specific design and operating data for power units of specific generation and inclusive it is possible to include the emulation of an exact replica of the plant control system. This type of modifications necessarily increment the initial cost of the simulator and such modifications must be done

Currently, with the power of modern computers, a complete power plant simulator can be installed in a laptop and easily transported, the main problem is the use of the simulator by the trainee because its interface is reduced, in the best-case scenario to a equipment with three displays (Figure 5), and with the number of actions required to operate the simulated system, a suitable training can be a complex problem without a effective

These simulators usually include detailed mathematical modelling and they can be divided in two groups: graphical and multi-user. Graphical simulators are based on a representation of the HMI in graphical form (display units or virtual images). These simulators provide a low-cost alternative to other simulators requiring the use of control

departments with the purpose of perfecting interaction skills between these areas.

**2.1.3 Compact simulators** 

by very specialized personnel.

method to do it.

Fig. 5. Compact simulator

**2.1.4 Classroom simulators** 

The simulator also can reproduce abnormal or emergency situations due to a deficient operation of the trainee or due to a malfunction inserted by the instructor. In the last case, during the specification of the simulator must be defined a malfunctions group. These malfunctions are of two types: binary and analogue. The first group contains malfunctions like: pump trips, fail position of valves, etc. The analogue malfunctions have a degree of severity (usually normalized from 0 to 100%) and their severity can be selected by the instructor. Examples are tubes rupture of steam lines and fouling factor of heat exchangers.
