Human factors considerations in power plant control room design

Although the safety record of electric utilities has been excellent, the Three Mile Island accident has made industry aware that human interface with today's power generation facility requires improvement. As power plants have grown in size and complexity, the control and monitoring instrumentation has increased substantially. Unfortunately, the operating staffs did not generally increase in a corresponding proportion. This paper discusses the philosophy and general implementation of human factors (HF) design, by Georgia Power Company, to both fossil-fired and nuclear electric power station control rooms. For purposes of scope, this paper is concerned primarily with control board design; however related topics are discussed where appropriate