OREANDA-NEWS. June 20, 2011. Tata Power, India's largest integrated private power utility, with many technological firsts to its credit, announced the commissioning of new PC based training simulators for 250MW and 500MW thermal units at its Trombay thermal power station. These simulators will not only train the company engineers working across its various power plants in the country, but will also be extended to aspiring engineers of other power plants in India and overseas. The training simulator was inaugurated by S Padmanabhan, executive director, operations, along with Ashok Sethi, vice president, Mumbai operations, and other senior officials of the company.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Padmanabhan said, “The rollout of training simulators reiterates our concerted efforts to achieve high standards of operational efficiency and excellence. We are certain that the simulators will set new industry benchmarks for training of operation and maintenance personnel.”

Taking cognisance of the shortage of skilled resources in the sector, Tata Power has implemented the state-of-the-art PC based training simulators at Trombay thermal power station. Several national and international utilities have trained their personnel at Tata Power in the areas of construction, commissioning and operations of power generating units on its earlier simulators of 150MW and 500MW. Tata Power was the first company in the country to develop in-house software packages for the 150MW and 500MW simulators and participants including personnel from various state electricity boards, NTPC and other utilities from India and abroad.

The new PC based simulator is an invaluable tool for training operation and maintenance personnel as training is imparted in a short time and at no risk as compared to conventional in-plant training. The main objective of the thermal power plant simulator is to train and assess operators in general plant operation, including training in plant startup and shutdown, supervision, monitoring and control during normal and emergency situations and in safety procedures without entailing any expenditure of fuel or endangering of the plant equipment.

In addition the simulator can be used as a powerful tool for engineers and plant management to verify process design and control strategies prior to startup of a plant as well as investigation and testing of operational problems that are normally not allowable under real plant normal operating conditions. Tata Power also has simulators at its other plant and project locations for in-house training.