Using a Benchmark-Referenced Approach for Validating a Power Plant Control Room: Results of the Baseline Study

Abstract

When performing a validation study of a new system, a question arises as to what constitutes acceptable performance. One approach to setting acceptance criteria is to compare performance obtained with the new system to performance with an existing system that serves as a ‘benchmark‘. This paper describes an integrated system validation for a modernized power plant control room that takes the benchmark-referenced approach. In preparation for the planned integrated system validation, a baseline study of crew performance with the existing control room technology was performed using a high fidelity simulator. This paper reports the results of the baseline study and discusses their implications for validation studies of complex systems more generally. Most notably, the results establish an empirical link between process measures of performance (e.g., target detection, diagnosis, workload, teamwork, and situation awareness) and operationally significant outcome measures of performance, which reinforces the value of including process measures in validation studies.