Article: Simulators predict powerplant operation ; Mix the complexity of a new construction or major retrofit project with today's 'do more with less,' a pinch of 'personnel inexperience,' and a dash of 'unintended consequences,' and you've got a recipe for insomnia. Advanced simulation tools, however, can help you wring out your design, train your operators before the first wire is terminated, and--just maybe--get a good night's rest

Many of us have worked on powerplant projects where the control system consisted of different vendors' control panels scattered throughout the plant. Controls checkout became an exercise in getting the digital gas-turbine controls to talk with the analog steam-turbine controls through a supervisory distributed control system (DCS). Of course, the DCS couldn't be checked out and commissioned until the local controls were operating on the plant "sneaker net," so the DCS followed some months later, if you were lucky. True, the supplier control panels were thoroughly checked before shipment (so you were told) and perhaps even functionally tested with the hardware. Supplier tests probably ...

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