People in power system control in the next century

The control of the electrical power system in England and Wales has evolved considerably over the last 30 years. The use of large mimic boards and telephoned instructions to power stations and substations has been superseded by full graphical displays, remote control of substations from a reduced number of control centres and instruction of generation via electronic datalinks. Need has arisen to drive power systems harder, together with technological change this will result in the people controlling them facing much change in their jobs over the years. The paper investigates these changes in a control environment where intelligent expert systems will become more prevalent. Under fault conditions operators can be put under severe stress which creates a requirement for advanced decision making support tools to improve their handling of these situations. Eventually we will have to decide what is better done by machines and what is better done by people