Survey on Excessive Alarms

In recent years a great deal of attention has been paid to the design of alarm processing hardware and software to guarantee that no alarms are lost when an event triggers a large number of alarms within a short period of time. The resulting systems are capable of filling alarm message displays much faster than human operators can read and comprehend them. The main objective behind conducting this survey was an attempt to answer the following questions: 1) Is there a problem with excessive alarms in modern power control centers? 2) If yes, what is the nature of the problem and what is the best way to cope with the problem? The idea for the project came as a result of a discussion in 1985 within the Joint Working Group on Power System Control Centers. An opinion was expressed that a problem existed with alarm processing in power system control centers and that perhaps the remedy for this situation ought to be studied. This opinion met with immediate agreement by some members and was disputed by others. The working group then decided to conduct a survey of control center operators to determine if problems existed with alarm processing. The survey contained many questions which required a simple yes, no or numerical response. In addition, the survey contained many questions which asked the respondent to express an opinion.