OTS: Operator Training Simulation

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OTS &
Dynamic Simulation

Dynamic process simulation helps to establish expertise and best practices among operators, enhancing process understanding.
Our clients make use of dynamic modeling in order to reduce risk of operational incidents, reduce start-up time, verify Distributed Control Systems (DCS), verify Safety Instrumented Systems (SIS), provide a test-bed system for analysis, increase operator awareness and skills, de-bottleneck units and processes and reduce environmental concerns.

There are very few opportunities in a plant for new and unskilled operational staff to experience actual plant start-ups and shutdowns, upsets or emergency situations. Operator Training Simulator is the right solution to help the operational staff for having the possibility to practice as often as necessary and without risks for the process units. This possibility ensures safe operations under rare or exceptional circumstances, and consequently the staff will become confident in his/her ability to operate the plant efficiently and safely in all the situations. An Operator Training Simulator will enable operators to be intensively trained on normal, abnormal and safety-critical scenarios, improving the operator understanding of the process and the overall operation safety.

In NAED we implement and deliver OTS solutions which allow familiarization and provide direct offline operator control, response and intervention experience for Production Department personnel and trainees in all process control, shutdown and emergency shutdown operations together with an intimate appreciation for navigation in, around and within the system.

Generally we address following objectives in a plant by implementing an OTS solution:

Train the operation staff on the process and the control system.

Reduce the risk of major operational incidents

Reduce start-up time

Increase plant on-stream time and performance

Verify Distributed Control System (DCS) operation

Verify Safety Integrated System (SIS) operation

Provide a test-bed system for engineering analysis

Avoid equipment damages

NAED OTS solution combines the Operation Console, the full emulation of the DCS and the core dynamic model engine (Aspen HYSYS ® Dynamics). This combination of technology ensures the portability and engineering usage of the dynamic model and, at the same time, secures the maintainability of the models with the latest process simulation technology. We through mentioned combination of technology, deliver the maximum level of realism to the operator and to the engineer as well .Our OTS solution will emulate the behavior of the platform in detail. This includes DCS signals, interlock logic and overall platform operation, in a way that the Operator see minimal (if any) differences between the OTS and the real platform HMI.

Dynamic Process
Simulation

Improving the production capacity in the upstream sector can be achieved by focusing on removing production obstacles from the reservoir to the well and up to topside facilities of the production units. Getting into challenging details of these issues, make operators more to leverage dynamic simulation for resolving their operational faults.

Operator Training
Simulator

OTS solution implies creating a dynamic model of the plant units and connecting it to a software capable of reproducing the behavior of the DCS and SIS being used to control the plant. The OTS will replicate the behavior of the plant in detail. This includes DCS signals, interlock logic and overall plant operation, in a way that the Operator sees minimal (if any) differences between the OTS and the real plant DCS interface.

Some key features of the NAED OTS solution are explained below:

Real Operation Console: Operators will be trained on identical conditions than in the real control room. The HMI graphic displays will be reused from the real control room consoles. This approach shortens the project execution, verifies the operability of the graphics and facilitates the maintenance.

Full emulation of the DCS: All the parameters, alarms and functionality of the control system are fully emulated via software with the DCS emulation software. The configuration files of the DCS from the real platform can be imported in the OTS system, providing a platform for checkout and verification before and after start-up.

Unique capabilities of the Process Simulator: By providing a more rigorous, stable and robust process simulation, we deliver a more realistic training session for all potential platform scenarios. The Aspen HYSYS ® Dynamics software allows performing additional process engineering analysis for early identification of operational problems and troubleshooting.

Maintainability: The NAED OTS solution is conceived to be maintained by the customer reusing the same Consoles graphics and DCS databases. The ability of Clients to maintain and modify Aspen HYSYS ® Dynamics models is another key benefit of using Aspen HYSYS ® Dynamics as the simulation engine for your OTS – ensuring a longer useful life of your OTS investment.

What We Offer

Steady State Simulations

What-If Studies, KPI Calculation, Optimization

Operator Training Systems

Operator Training, Emergency Scenarios

Check-out of the DCS databases

DCS FAT with Virtual Plant, Operational Procedures Test

Dynamic Modeling for Detailed Engineering Studies

Equipment Sizing & Protection, Control Logic & Layout Design Operating Procedures, Flare Load Calculation & PSV Sizing Emergency System Verification & HAZOP Studies Support