Endesa recreates a virtual reality thermal power plant to train its employees

Through the Vives project, and using virtual reality, Endesa offers an environment where you can learn how to carry out maintenance operations of a thermal power plant safely without being physically inside the facilities.

Endesa has launched the Vives project (virtual, Immersive, Vision, Endesa, safety), a program based on virtual reality that seeks to recreate the interior of a thermal power plant so that its employees can do practices in a 'real' environment without taking risks or interfering with the operation of the equipment.

Ultimately, its objective is to offer an environment where to learn how to perform maintenance operations of a thermal power plant safely without being physically inside the facilities..

This initiative is part of the implementation of the Loto methodology in thermal generation plants, a safety procedure for disconnecting and consigning energy sources from industrial equipment while performing maintenance operations, cleaning or repair.

Training through immersive virtual reality has been developed by Minsait, Indra subsidiary, and will be implemented in the 24 Endesa's thermal generation plants in Spain so that more than 700 professionals can be trained in work of management of disclaimers and physical blocking of equipment.

“This program allows us to acquire knowledge in a simple and safe way in operations that in reality entail risks in our security. It is about protecting workers from possible accidents caused by an accidental start-up or by an unforeseen ignition during a maintenance or isolation service", comments Julián Gallego Alarcón, technician of the Joint Prevention Service (SPM) of Catalonia.

To achieve a virtual environment as close as possible to reality, the Minsait team toured several Endesa facilities to photograph and record all the elements involved in the processes.

The immersion is total thanks to the glasses, that incorporate headphones, and to the controls with which the instructor's instructions are followed. The padlocks, labels and other elements that are necessary in the real environment are reproduced with great accuracy. You have to follow step by step the instructions collected in a field notebook: if the tool detects that a step is skipped, a warning automatically occurs and does not allow you to continue until the entire process is complete.

In each level, different real situations and interactions with other actors involved in the process are recreated and the procedures associated with Loto are applied, incorporating the use of EPIS (personal protective equipment).

Virtual reality “facilitates the understanding of operations and procedures thanks to immersive experience and practice”, as Patricia García Gómez points out, SPM technique at the As Pontes plant.

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