SRV: a virtual reality application to electrical substations operation training

The purpose of this paper is to present the SRV (Virtual Reality System), a virtual reality application to train personnel associated with the manual operation of electrical substations equipment. We present a low-cost PC-based application which allows the user both to know the basic elements of an electrical substation in terms of appearance, behaviour and functionality and to operate the substation interacting with the switching equipment and performing operations like in the real world. The SRV system is composed of a plant simulator (SGI Simulator), which is currently used by IBERDROLA in the training process of operators in the execution of local manoeuvres in those substations where there are no automation or remote control facilities, and the virtual reality environment, a set of realistic three dimensional models of different types of substations. The capability of generating automatically any substation from the single-line diagrams, the interaction facilities and the almost real appearance of the components makes the SRV system a very good addition to the current operator training process.