Towards a higher level of user interaction in the energy management task

The present generation of energy management system user interfaces (UIs) has low user satisfaction. The full graphics user interface (FGUI) as so far implemented actually decreases efficiency compared with the older, character graphics UI. The fundamental problem of the FGUI may be its use of an inadequate UI paradigm, but there are many other factors affecting its efficiency: low relative display resolution, insufficient understanding of user tasks and a low level of information display and user input actions. At least some of these factors can be mitigated in UI design. Visualization can increase display resolution and communicate information to operators on a higher level than numbers and alarms. An example visualization of power system state is used to illustrate this point