- Project number: F 2569
- Institution: Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)
- Status: Ongoing Project
- Planned end: 2025-12-31
Description:
Safe operation of energy system infrastructures such as electricity and gas grids is based not only on reliable technologies, but also on the experience of the personnel in the control centers. However, due to the increasing technological and system complexity in the operation of energy supply, the personnel are exposed to ever higher stress and strain in their daily work. Comparable developments happen in many other industries where people monitor and control complex systems from work systems similar to a control center.
The goal of the research project Beautiful is the research and development of simulators, training concepts and ergonomic assistance systems to support the decision making of control center personnel. We base our evaluation of the concepts on the example of energy supply in regional distribution networks. The developed concepts and procedures are first implemented and tested within a research and development environment. Subsequently they are tested in the actual KRITIS environment of the network operator and with the voluntary involvement of control center personnel. Finally, the knowledge gained in the research project will be translated into transferable concepts that can be used to optimize the cognitive stress and strain of control center personnel.
Within the framework of Beautiful, the BAuA sub-project focuses on occupational science and cognitive ergonomics. The aim is to achieve optimum strain for the employees. The focus is on conducting studies with test persons. In terms of methodology, BAuA is primarily contributing validated subjective measurement procedures for stress measurement.
This research project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, BMBF) (Funding Code: 03SF0694) and is coordinated by the project management agency Jülich (Projektträger Jülich, PTJ).