Panel Session: Human-Machine Teaming and Operational Considerations for New Smart Grid Technologies (slides)
Creators: J. Barr
Publisher: name: IEEE
Year: 2022

A new generation of advanced power applications (within the EMS, DMS, and DERMS sectors) will be needed to ensure reliable, resilient, robust, safe, and economic operations. However, for new applications and smart grid technologies to be adopted by utilities, developers need to consider not only the technical aspects, but a wide range of operational considerations and whether new systems are usable by power system operators. Barriers to industry adoption and deployment in control room applications include:
o Technology readiness level vs human readiness level - While new technologies are developed explicitly with the TRL scale in mind, the human readiness level of the technology is often neglected. Measuring when a technology is ready for end users is a major part of the evaluation process for deploying new technologies.
o Operational considerations – Utility engineers and operators will likely reject any new technologies that do not consider line crew safety, existing operational procedures, work clearances, customer acceptability, workforce rules, data management, and integration with other utility systems.
o Human machine trust – Related to but beyond technology performance, operators need to trust the results of the technology and know when to (and when not to) use new technologies. In high stakes environments, like control rooms, there little room for error, from machine accuracy to operator use.
o Situational awareness - In control environments, maintaining high awareness of grid performance is critical. Many technologies in the control room require operator attention and engagement to be effective. The challenge is that with many indicators providing false alarms, the demand on operator attention negatively impacts situational awareness of the grid. When new technologies add relatively little benefit when compared to additional tasking, these technologies are often rejected.
The discussion will focus on approaches to validating and verifying new technologies, as well as accelerating adoption for control room use, including
o Elicitation of power system operator workflows
o Integrating new technologies with current operational practices
o Use of real-time simulation and virtual control room demonstrations
o Realistic operational scenarios to validate technology and human readiness levels
A new generation of advanced power applications (within the EMS, DMS, and DERMS sectors) will be needed to ensure reliable, resilient, robust, safe, and economic operations. However, for new applications and smart grid technologies to be adopted by utilities, developers need to consider not only the technical aspects, but a wide range of operational considerations and whether new systems are usable by power system operators. Barriers to industry adoption and deployment in control room applications include:<br />o Technology readiness level vs human readiness level - While new technologies are developed explicitly with the TRL scale in mind, the human readiness level of the technology is often neglected. Measuring when a technology is ready for end users is a major part of the evaluation process for deploying new technologies.<br />o Operational considerations – Utility engineers and operators will likely reject any new technologies that do not consider line crew safety, existing operational procedures, work clearances, customer acceptability, workforce rules, data management, and integration with other utility systems.<br />o Human machine trust – Related to but beyond technology performance, operators need to trust the results of the technology and know when to (and when not to) use new technologies. In high stakes environments, like control rooms, there little room for error, from machine accuracy to operator use.<br />o Situational awareness - In control environments, maintaining high awareness of grid performance is critical. Many technologies in the control room require operator attention and engagement to be effective. The challenge is that with many indicators providing false alarms, the demand on operator attention negatively impacts situational awareness of the grid. When new technologies add relatively little benefit when compared to additional tasking, these technologies are often rejected.<br />The discussion will focus on approaches to validating and verifying new technologies, as well as accelerating adoption for control room use, including<br />o Elicitation of power system operator workflows<br />o Integrating new technologies with current operational practices<br />o Use of real-time simulation and virtual control room demonstrations<br />o Realistic operational scenarios to validate technology and human readiness levels