Abstract--This paper presents experimental results associated with human factors aspects of using three-dimensional (3D) visualizations to display electric power system generation information on one-line diagrams. The paper's results are based on an experiment performed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign using electric power system students. The results indicate that compared to standard 2D one-line displays, 3D visualizations of generator output and reserves can be used successfully on one-line displays to improve both the speed and accuracy of certain tasks. Index Terms-Power System Operations and Planning, Power System Visualization, 3D, Human Factors I. INTRODUCTIONPower system analysis and operations requires the consideration of a large amount of multivariate data. For example, even in a simple power flow application data of interest includes a potentially large number of independent and dependent variables, such as transmission lines flows, bus voltages, generator real/reactive outputs and reserves, transformer tap positions, flowgate values, and scheduled versus actual power transactions. With systems containing tens of thousands of buses, a key challenge is to present this data in a form so one can assess the state of the system in a quick and intuitive manner.The information associated with power systems has usually been presented using a two-dimensional (2D) display space, often consisting of either a one-line diagram or tabular list displays. However, over the last several years this pattern has begun to change as new visualization techniques are developed and integrated into both power system analysis software and utility control centers. One such technique, made possible by recent increases in computing power, is the interactive three-dimensional (3D) visualization of power system information. An early application of 3D for power system information visualization is [1] in which simple 3D graphics are used to show power system voltage security. A few years later the use of 3D is presented for plant andThe authors would like to acknowledge the support of NSF through its grants EEC 96-15792 and DMI 00-60329, PSERC, and the U.S. DOE through its Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions (CERTS) program.

Abstract-This paper presents experimental results associated with human factor aspects of using animation to display electric power system flow information, including transmission line megawatt flow and power transfer distribution factor (PTDF) values. The paper's results are based on two experiments performed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign using electric power system students. The results indicate that animated motion of power system flows can be used successfully in displays to improve both the speed and accuracy of certain tasks. This effect was most apparent on displays showing PTDFs. However, the results also show that motion may not provide a clear advantage in the visualization of transmission line flows for uncomplicated analysis tasks.Index Terms-Animation, human factors, power system operations and planning, power system visualization.

New power system displays have been developed to aid operators in the detection and diagnosis of faults. The enhancement of integrated one-line diagrams of power system data with motion and motion cues was examined in this experiment. Participants acknowledged and solved power system failures on a simulated power network across a number of trials of varying complexity. Participants performed these tasks using interactive displays indicating power flow with digits, stationary arrows, or moving arrows. For high complexity scenarios, results indicated a general advantage for the motion display in the diagnostic task (problem resolution) but a slight advantage of the digital display on the fault detection task (problem identification). Performance with the stationary arrow display was generally between the other two groups, being nearly as good as with the digital display in the detection task and nearly as good as with the moving arrow display in the diagnosis task. Further research is necessary to determine the conditions where motion is most beneficial.

In this experiment, we examined the use of motion in displays to illustrate power transactions in a large-scale electrical power network. Participants located and selected the selling and buying nodes for a single power transaction in each trial based on patterns in power flow between the nodes in the network, and they designated an arbitrary power flow path from the seller to the buyer in trials where they were not directly connected. Participants performed the tasks using interactive displays indicating power flow with stationary arrows, arrows moving at a uniform speed, and arrows moving at a speed proportional to power flow. The two motion displays supported faster selection times, fewer errors, and lower workload than the no-motion display. Selection times and error rates were slightly lower in the proportional-motion display than in the uniform-motion display, but the differences were not significant. These results indicate that motion used in displays to indicate flow among system components can significantly improve performance in tasks that require detection of specific flow patterns.

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