Uniper - Flexibility deployed for continuity

Continuity of energy supply is the top priority for energy company Uniper. The modernization of the control technology required training for programmers, technicians, and engineers.

itsme was asked because of its flexibility in putting together a customized training program. The technical service provider also showed flexibility in scheduling the training days. “They were very understanding.”

 

International energy company Uniper supplies electricity and heat. In the Netherlands, it operates four power plants: one on the Maasvlakte and three in urban areas, namely The Hague, Leiden, and Rotterdam Capelle. These three urban power plants, for electricity supply and district heating, fall under the City Plants organization of Uniper Benelux. As an engineer and chairman of the I&C professional group, Henk Torenbeek shares responsibility for instrumentation & control and operational technology, which also includes the emergency breakdown service.

Continuity is naturally the number one priority in Uniper's energy supply, which is why the emergency breakdown service is staffed 24/7. The biggest challenge of advancing technology is preserving knowledge of the different generations of technologies among technicians and engineers. Supplier support also plays an important role in this, Torenbeek explains. “If the technology with which the power plants were originally built is no longer available and is no longer supported by suppliers, we have to start replacing parts. We cannot stand still, but must continue to develop.”

The plant at Maasvlakte has had a relationship with itsme for some time, for the supply of electromechanical and control engineering components, says technical sales engineer Arno Capelle. The City Plants organization sources the components from another supplier, which, however, does not provide training on this scale. That is how Torenbeek ended up with itsme, which he knew from his previous employers. “I knew they offer courses that already came quite close to our needs. And the nice thing was that, in consultation with their trainers, such as Yarno Paenen, the courses could be tailored to our specific needs.”

“The nice thing was that they could tailor their courses to our specific needs

Yarno Paenen is a mechanical engineer and product specialist Industrial Automation at itsme. “I am also one of the trainers. Originally, we had planned two training courses, TIAP-BASIC and TIAP-SERVICE, each lasting two days, for the programmers and the technicians and engineers (TIAP stands for Siemens' Totally Integrated Automation Portal, ed.). In addition, we provided the PCS7-Service v9.” The Simatic PCS7 version 9.2 was included in that training, Torenbeek explains. “We considered this large control system too complex for daily maintenance and therefore only had our engineers take that 5-day training.”

Flexible and understanding

The TIAP-SERVICE training was split into two groups, Paenen reports. “I taught one training course and my colleague Quinten taught the other.” Torenbeek: “We deliberately chose to have this course delivered at our site with everyone together. That way, they could learn from each other where everyone's competencies lie, so that they can cover for and support each other in the event of a malfunction. In practice, however, it caused problems when we took a large team out of rotation all at once.

That is why we split it into two smaller groups, for better education and business continuity.” Torenbeek appreciates itsme's flexibility. “itsme was able to immediately accommodate our request by splitting the group and providing the training on site. We also once had an emergency. We removed the scheduled training from the calendar and they delivered it at a later time, when things had calmed down for us. itsme was very understanding about that.” Many topics came from the standard training, Paenen reports. “Those were already in line with Uniper's wishes. We also responded to the questions that were asked during the training and to what they had indicated beforehand. That included the Trace function, which is a very relevant tool for troubleshooting. We paid a great deal of attention to Uniper's wishes during the training.”

“We split the group into two, for better education and business continuity”

The training courses have now been completed. However, the reason for them, the conversion of the power plant, turned out to be more difficult than planned, Torenbeek reports. “That still has to be carried out. However, what our people learned in TIAP-BASIS can already be put into practice, because we have already rolled out new technology in substations.” So Uniper's people are already working with the new TIAP technology and keeping the knowledge they gained during the training fresh. And if they have questions, they can always contact itsme support, Capelle adds. “The funny thing is that the people they get on the phone here are also the people who gave the training courses, such as Yarno. They are the product specialists.”

Internal team building

Torenbeek is already seeing the effect of the training courses in practice. “I notice that more technicians can help with troubleshooting. The number of breakdowns is simply decreasing, partly because a broader group supports the new equipment and control systems. It also brings peace of mind to the group, because no longer is a small number of people overloaded and the troubleshooting work can be distributed across a broader base. That is one of my main priorities: ensuring there is a broad knowledge base, so that one or two people are not overloaded and potentially burn out. It's about continuity across the wider group.” Much needed, because there are many different technologies together in Uniper's power plants, according to Torenbeek. “Within that, each of our technicians has their own specialty. That's why we had them train as a group, so they could discover each other's strengths and weaknesses. Yes, in that sense the training was also a kind of internal team building.”

 

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