Plant Process Simulator for Operator and Technician Training

摘要

Mexico's National Electric Power Company, Comision Federal de Electricidad (Federal Electrical Commission, or CFE by its acronym in Spanish), is the second largest state-owned company in Mexico, in terms of budget and employees. Currently, CFE generates, distributes and markets electric power for almost 33.8 million domestic and industrial customers, which currently represents almost 100 million people, and more than a million new customers are incorporated every year. CFE operates several thermoelectric, hydroelectric, coal-fired, nuclear, geothermal, wind powered, and combined cycle power generating facilities; and carries out the responsibility for the management, control, and development of Mexico's electric grid, which currently has more than 742,000 kilometers of transmission and distribution power lines. The infrastructure to generate electric power consists of 177 generating plants, having an installed capacity of 51,081 electric megawatts (MW). Laguna Verde is the only nuclear power plant currently in operation in Mexico; it belongs to CFE's power generation division and is located in the state of Veracruz over the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The nuclear plant has 2 independent power generation units with BWR-5 type reactors, each one with a generation capacity of 682.5 MW, which add up to an effective installed generation capacity of 1,365 MW. The first unit started operation on August 1990, whereas the second unit started operation on April 1995. This paper presents a process plant simulator for operator and technician training designed and developed for the Laguna Verde Veracruz nuclear power plant in order to facilitate and support the training and certification processes of the plant's personnel. The plant simulator provides an easily accessible tool to train and apply failure-scenario mock up tests to the personnel; it also improves the safety of the personnel by eliminating all the risks involved in assessing the abilities of the personnel in the real nuclear power plant. Furthermore, the system automatically acquires and records all measurements required in a test session, so the training results and the simulation session itself can be thoroughly reviewed offline.