Teamwork in the Future Control Room

Poster (konferens), 2024

The energy system is undergoing significant changes, affecting both the power generation and the electric power control systems, which are supervised and run by human operators.

The purpose of this paper is to present possible implications of how operators in electric power control room systems and nuclear power plants respectively might collaborate in the future, in relation to today.

A semi-structured interview study was conducted with 16 individuals from academia, industry, and operation. Their expertise was linked to process control in electrical power systems and nuclear power plants respectively.

The interviewees anticipated increased automation in future control systems, driven by economic and safety reasons. Staff reductions could lead to operators managing multiple simultaneous processes or additional tasks, potentially moving decision-making from the control room to a centralized center.

Automation was envisioned as not only replacing tasks but also becoming a collaborative entity.

 To conclude, there seem to be a divide in perspectives with researchers and MTO experts envisioning more radical changes in organizational teamwork compared to those closer to daily operations. Reasons might be that operational staff more see the need for solving their current challenges, whilst researchers and MTO-experts are more prone to view further ahead into the future.