Higher Education » The Next Generation of System Operators

On April 8th, 2010, the Department of Energy announced an award for nearly $100 million for 54 smart grid workforce training programs that will help prepare the next generation of workers in the utility and electrical manufacturing industries.

These projects will leverage more than $95 million in funding from community colleges, universities, utilities and manufacturers to develop and implement training programs.

IncSys is currently working with several community colleges and universities to combine classroom learning with the unique training opportunities provided through PowerSimulator™ the industry leading operator training simulator.

PowerSimulator in the Classroom

PowerSimulator is the primary tool used to comply with the NERC requirement that every certified system operator must receive 32 hours of emergency operations training each year. During the Department of Energy project the PowerSimulator training systems that are used to train NERC system operators will be updated with specific and realistic models of the eight NERC regions.

The PowerSimulator training events will scale from single user scenarios to massive simulations with hundreds of participants playing different roles. IncSys is supplying this advanced PowerSimulator capability to not only current industry professionals, by also universities, colleges, and community colleges.

The outcome is that the pipeline of available operating positions will be filled with more qualified candidates who are trained in the classroom with real-life simulation scenarios before they are assigned to control room positions.

The hypothetical 29 station PALCO model is being made availabe to participating educational institutions.

Gonzaga University

IncSys is partnering with Gonzaga University, in Spokane Washington, to bring the unmatched learning potential provided by simulation-based learning to the campus. The partnership has become a test-bed for the introduction of simulation learning at the university level.

The Gonzaga University (GU) ZagOps training center is an ideal setting for training students based on a PowerSimulator BRICK and twenty dual screen workstations. GU students and technicians have supported the administration of the PowerSimulator system. Local Northwest utilities appreciate having such an impressive facility available in their area.

GU is providing access to its computer cluster composed of 512 Intel quad and dual core blade servers. GU students are working under the direction of Marck Robinson so that the PowerSimulator real-time database, event processor and user interface software will run distributed across parallel processors. This will allow the maximum number of concurrent users to be scaled in proportion to the number of parallel processors. For example a 10 processer system will support 400 logged on PowerSimulator users.

How to Join the Team and Start using PowerSimulator?

The network of relationships that has developed around the GU operator training center will be used as a role model to build other networks of relationships around RPI in the Northeast, Texas A & M in Texas, and Mississipi SU in the Southeast.

IncSys will work with any insitution to help bring simulator-based training to the classroom. Simply call and IncSys representative to find out how to get started. 425.732.2377