WRc's Operator Training Tool for Scottish Water to allow for cloud-based use and incorporate 38 potential failure scenarios across 3 membrane types
WRc provided Scottish Water with a training tool to allow operators to explore potential failure scenarios when operating membrane treatment plants. Teams can now better understand how to diagnose and resolve problems using the information provided by the SCADA systems for different types of membrane.
WRc's Operator Training Tool for Scottish Water to allow for cloud-based use and incorporate 38 potential failure scenarios across 3 membrane types
the opportunity for operators to experience a set of failure scenarios in order to maintain their skills in the effective troubleshooting of system failures
Scottish Water operational leaders to be confident that their operators can discuss how they resolve failure scenarios and demonstrate the troubleshooting approach
Client: Scottish Water
On behalf of the Scottish government, Scottish Water delivers clean and wastewater services to over 2.6 million households and 150,000 business premises, and maintains over 2,000 treatment works.
At a potable water treatment works diagnosing the cause of system failures quickly is critical, but such failures are infrequent and there is a need to maintain staff experience with identifying them. WRc's Operator Training Tool allows staff who operate treatment or membrane processes to experience a set of simulated failure scenarios, for which they can demonstrate their ability to diagnose and resolve. Scottish Water required an update to their tool in order to enable network use (avoiding the need for copies to be installed on staff devices); support for training around the operation / troubleshooting of membrane systems; and a provision of new simulation scenarios covering three membrane types.
To provide Scottish Water with an update to their WRc Operator Training Tool, our engineers, collaborating with Scottish Water’s operations leaders, developed 38 scenarios which simulated failures such as high inlet turbidity, membrane system leaks, and pump failures. This involved developing mathematical models for tubular nano-filtration, spiral nano-filtration and ultrafiltration membrane systems.
The tool was provided as a cloud-based secure interface. An updated user guide for the scenarios was also provided, as well as the means within the tool to record operators' observations and responses and play these back to enable subsequent knowledge assessment by Scottish Water.
This project delivered a training tool to allow operators to explore potential failure scenarios when operating membrane treatment plants, and better understand how to diagnose and resolve problems for various membrane types using the information provided by the SCADA systems. WRc met practical requirements set out by Scottish Water, and ensured knowledge was effectively transferred and competency of staff could be assessed.
Paul Weir - Process Optimisation Manager
Scottish Water