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500 MW operator training simulator room installed at MAHAGENCO Chandrapur
Success stories

Six projects, described the way an engineer would describe them.

Each one states the problem, what we built, and what was delivered. Where a client has not released measured savings, we say what happened rather than inventing a percentage.

§ 01Real results

What a simulator actually changes.

These are the outcomes our clients consistently describe. They are stated as themes, not as quantified claims, because the numbers belong to the plants.

  • 01

    Operators who have already run the unit

    Board crews arrive at the console having practised startup, normal operation, upsets and shutdown.

  • 02

    Emergencies rehearsed, not improvised

    Trips, runaways and equipment failures are inserted deliberately and repeated until the response is routine.

  • 03

    Competence you can evidence

    Trainee actions are logged and scored, so training records rest on data rather than attendance.

  • 04

    Plant availability protected

    Training happens on a model, so the unit stays on the bar and no capital equipment is put at risk.

  • 05

    Institutional knowledge retained

    Procedures learned by retiring operators are captured in scenarios that outlast the people who wrote them.

§ 02Case studies

The projects in full.

500 MW operator training simulator room installed at MAHAGENCO Chandrapur
Power & Energy
Chandrapur, Maharashtra, India2008

500 MW unit simulator with emulated ABB DCS

MAHAGENCO — Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station

Challenge
Chandrapur’s Unit 7 is a 500 MW set. Crews had to be brought up to competence on cold start, load ramping and trip recovery without taking a large unit off the bar to practise on.
Solution
A high-fidelity simulator built around Unit 7, with the ABB Procontrol P13 DCS emulated so the operator sees the same faceplates, graphics and alarm behaviour as on the real board. Boiler, turbine, generator, electrical system and balance of plant are all modelled, including FSSS, ATRS, co-ordinated master control and the turbine stress evaluator.

Key result

Installed, commissioned and customised on site at CSTPS. The unit’s operating crews train on startup, shutdown and emergency sequences on the simulator rather than on the running set.

Scope delivered

  • ABB Procontrol P13 emulation
  • Boiler, turbine & generator models
  • FSSS and ATRS logic
  • Site acceptance testing
Refinery process training simulator room at Bharat Oman Refineries, Bina
Refining & Petrochemicals
Bina, Madhya Pradesh, India2009 – 2013

Refinery process training simulator for a new-build refinery

Bharat Oman Refineries Limited

Challenge
A greenfield refinery needed trained board operators before the units existed to train them on — the classic commissioning problem, where the first people to run a unit have never run that unit.
Solution
Supply, installation and commissioning of a process training simulator covering the crude and vacuum distillation units, the sulphur recovery unit and the fluidised catalytic cracking unit, followed by instructor-led training courses conducted on site at Bina.

Key result

Operators reached the control room having already run the units through normal operation, upsets and shutdown on the model. Training was completed on site in 2013.

Scope delivered

  • CDU / VDU model
  • SRU model
  • FCCU model
  • On-site operator training
Hardware-in-loop simulation testbed with field instruments wired to a process model
Research & Academic
Mumbai, Maharashtra, IndiaRecent

Hardware-in-loop testbed for a 500 MW thermal unit

Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute

Challenge
Control research and teaching need real instruments and controllers in the loop. A pure software model does not expose students to signal conditioning, wiring faults or controller tuning against real I/O.
Solution
A hardware-in-loop testbed in which physical plant devices exchange signals with a mathematical model of a 500 MW thermal unit running in real time. The model computes the process; the hardware sees it as a plant.

Key result

A working research and teaching platform where control strategies can be tested against plant dynamics with real devices in the loop. A companion 40 MW hydro testbed was delivered to the Central University of Jammu.

Scope delivered

  • Real-time model
  • Field device interfacing
  • 40 MW hydro companion testbed
  • Research platform
Process columns and piping at a petroleum refinery at dusk
Refining & Petrochemicals
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India1997

FCCU simulator with emulated Honeywell TDC-3000

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

Challenge
The fluidised catalytic cracker is the unit where operator judgement matters most and where mistakes are most expensive. Training had to happen on the same console the operators actually used.
Solution
A state-of-the-art FCCU simulator developed in collaboration with Atlantic Simulation Inc., USA, with an emulated Honeywell TDC-3000 console so the training console matched the control room. A direct-connect variant using a real TDC-3000 console with a DEC Alpha followed in 1999.

Key result

One of the first emulated-DCS refinery simulators delivered in India, and the start of a long line of TDC-3000 work including the FCCU, CDU and VDU package supplied to BPCL.

Scope delivered

  • FCCU dynamic model
  • TDC-3000 emulation
  • Direct-connect variant
  • Collaboration with ASI, USA
210 MW thermal power plant simulator laboratory with operator workstations
Power & Energy
Nashik, Koradi, Ropar, Korba & Wanakbori, India1996 – 2013

One-to-one panel emulation for 210 MW units

MSEB, PSEB, CSEB and GSECL

Challenge
State utilities were running 210 MW sets from conventional panel control rooms. Training needed to match the panel the operator stands in front of, not a generic screen.
Solution
PC-based 210 MW thermal power plant simulators with interactive one-to-one panel emulation, covering both ABL and BHEL boilers and both KWU and LMZ turbines, delivered to training centres across five states.

Key result

A generic 210 MW platform that could be re-targeted to each utility’s own panel layout and machine configuration — the basis of Tri-Angle’s power plant model library.

Scope delivered

  • Panel emulation
  • ABL & BHEL boiler variants
  • KWU & LMZ turbine variants
  • Five state utilities
Computerised bubble cap distillation pilot plant supplied to RCF Limited, Mumbai
Chemicals & Fertilizers
Chembur, Mumbai, India2014

Computerised bubble cap distillation pilot plant

Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited

Challenge
RCF’s training centre wanted engineers to work on a real distillation column under DCS/SCADA control — a physical plant small enough to sit in a training hall but faithful enough to teach column behaviour.
Solution
A bubble cap distillation column setup with seven control loops running simultaneously under SCADA supervision, instrumented with RTDs, pressure and level sensors, dosing pumps, I/P converters and pneumatic control valves.

Key result

A working pilot plant used for familiarisation with DCS/SCADA-controlled operation, batch distillation study and overall material balance exercises.

Scope delivered

  • Seven simultaneous control loops
  • SCADA supervision
  • Full field instrumentation
  • Material balance exercises
§ 03Delivery record

Everything else, in date order.

A condensed record of named deliveries from 1979 to the present.

  1. 1979

    Tri-Angle Simulation founded in Mumbai as India’s first process simulation company.

  2. 1983

    First process simulator in India developed and installed at the Advanced Training Institute, Madras.

  3. 1985

    India’s first digital computer simulator delivered to Bharat Petroleum’s refinery.

  4. 1995

    Ammonia and urea plant simulation on a Yokogawa DCS console delivered in Saudi Arabia, with ASI, USA. Lube refinery simulation completed with ABB-Simcon in the USA.

  5. 1996

    Crude distillation unit simulated for IOCL Baroda with CMC Ltd. One-to-one panel-based 210 MW simulators delivered to MSEB’s Nashik and Koradi training centres.

  6. 1997

    FCCU simulator with emulated Honeywell TDC-3000 completed for HPCL, with ASI, USA.

  7. 1999

    Direct-connect simulator using a TDC-3000 console and DEC Alpha completed for HPCL Mumbai.

  8. 2000 – 2006

    PC-based process training simulator with TDC-3000 emulation and FCCU, CDU and VDU models supplied to BPCL.

  9. 2001 – 2013

    Generic 210 MW thermal power plant simulators delivered to PSEB (Ropar), CSEB (Korba) and GEB (Wanakbori).

  10. 2008

    500 MW simulator installed, commissioned and customised at MAHAGENCO’s Chandrapur station.

  11. 2009 – 2013

    Process training simulator supplied, commissioned and trained on at Bharat Oman Refineries, Bina.

  12. 2013 – 2015

    Coiled-type heat exchanger control system, solid–liquid extraction setup, bubble cap distillation pilot plant, pH control system and PLC trainers delivered to institutions including GGSIPU, GGV Bilaspur, RCF, NIT Warangal and IIT Kanpur.

  13. Recent

    Hardware-in-loop testbeds for 500 MW thermal (VJTI) and 40 MW hydro (Central University of Jammu); waste water treatment research platform for VJTI; 14 academic simulation modules supplied to 30 institutions under MSBTE.

See the full client list
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