ABU DHABI // A new simulation centre will train people to operate and deal with emergencies at refineries, and power and desalination plants. The Emirates Simulation Academy (ESA), based at the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training, was opened yesterday and will receive its first students on Sunday. The Dh76 million (US$20.7m) centre has simulators for two types of gas turbine, a desalination plant, an oil refinery and an oil and gas platform. There is no nuclear power plant simulator yet, but one could be added later as the centre grows.
Trainees can learn, without risk, how to manage the dozens of pieces of equipment and situations involved in operating a major industrial plant. The centre, close to Abu Dhabi Men's College, is said to be the most advanced of its kind in the Middle East and North Africa. Until now, trainees have had to travel to the US or Europe. The academy was opened by Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, the president of Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, who is on an official visit to the UAE.
The six trainees starting their courses on Sunday are Emiratis who will help operate the Taweelah A1 power and desalination plant in Abu Dhabi, run by Gulf Total Tractebel Power Company. Alice Chin Keat Sze, the operation manager of the academy, said students would be trained for a total of 11 weeks spread over a year. There could be as many as 500 variables in the operation of a plant, which in the case of turbine can include steam pressures, steam temperatures and the temperatures of bearings on which the turbine rotates.
Each of the five simulators at ESA consists of a bank of screens displaying information about dozens of variables. When they move outside the range of safety, alarms sound and trainees are expected to know how to respond, and if a number of alarms go off, which to deal with first. In the real world, plant operators may have only seconds to decide how to react to an emergency. Pavel Harangozo, the academy's general manager, said interest from companies looking at sending their employees to the centre began to grow in the second half of last year.
Mr Harangozo said it would take about three years for the academy to reach full enrolment. He said the academy had held discussions with organisations such as Dubai Water and Electricity Authority and Sharjah Water and Electricity Authority about training staff. Petroleum companies in Oman and Saudi Arabia have also expressed interest. He said that if there was the demand, the plant would "definitely" get a nuclear power plant simulator.
"We could participate in this because we have close connections with the companies that make nuclear power simulators, and we possess the capability to staff the academy with the right people with the right skills," Mr Harangozo, a former nuclear power plant operator, said. The academy was 60 per cent funded by the investment firm Al Qudra Holding; 30 per cent by the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training, the commercial arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT); and 10 per cent by GSE Systems, the simulator manufacturer.
The only people to have used the centre are students from HCT schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and Ruwais, who were taking short courses as part of their studies. dbardsley@thenational.ae
