Transportable simulator trains control center operators

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) developed an advanced transportable operator training simulator (OTS) that features improvements over other simulators on the market. The OTS consists of four subsystems: power system modeling, educational, scenario building, and control center modeling. The interaction between the instructor and the OTS is supported by the instructor position man-machine interface (IPMMI) software and hardware. Control of the OTS, data entry into the database, and presentation of data on displays are performed by the IPMMI. All data requests and updates performed by the IPMMI relate to data resident in the power system model (PSM) database. The IPMMI also has the ability to initiate PSM tasks and to transmit program-generated messages to the instructor. OTS implementation and testing at a host utility are described.<>