A virtual instructor for simulator training

There is a growing need for power system operators to use operator training simulators (OTS). NERC requires that each power system operator practice 32 hours of emergency operations training using realistic simulations each year. The draft NERC PER 005 standard is supporting a systematic approach to training (SAT) where training is directed at identifying and closing the gap between required knowledge and skills and the measured knowledge and skills of individual operators. Simulators are also valuable for this level of performance measurement. This paper addresses how a Virtual Instructor can be used to automate the steps that a human normally performs in setting up, briefing, monitoring and evaluating simulator scenarios. The Virtual Instructor has been implemented within the Emergency Operations with PowerSimulator (EOPS) product and the applications with this product are summarized. The Virtual Instructor has been built based on the principles of tacit to explicit knowledge transformation and the recognition primed decision model. The paper reviews these principles and how they are applied.