Easington Full-Site Operator Training Simulator.

Full-site project ownership

For the full-site simulator project in 2016, I wrote the proposal and defined the scope, delivered part of the simulation myself, and worked with engineers and software developers to produce the wider system.

My responsibility continued through factory acceptance testing (FAT), customer acceptance and installation. It also included operator training and long-term support, maintaining continuity between the original requirements, the delivered simulator and the customer’s ongoing use of it.

This was end-to-end project ownership: understanding what the customer needed, defining a practical technical scope, coordinating delivery and remaining accountable after handover.

The project started in July 2016. Development finished in August 2017, followed by delivery in August–September 2017.

Reproducing the DeltaV operating environment

Easington used a DeltaV distributed control system (DCS). We needed to emulate its operator environment so the simulator looked and behaved like the system operators used at work.

That meant bringing two parts of the simulator together: the dynamic engineering model of the site and the emulated control-system behaviour and presentation. The objective was a coherent operating experience, with process responses reflected through the controls and displays.

The DeltaV images in the gallery are illustrative references for that interface style. They show the kind of control-room presentation involved, while keeping actual plant and project screens private.