Human-centered design of DC power plant controllers
Robert Wikstrom · 2014
Development of DC power plant controllers in the past has been focused on: · Introduction and development of industry standard open protocols for remote management and monitoring such as Modbus and SNMP · Added network security features such as HTTPS and SNMP V3 · Managing DC power systems with multiple DC voltages +24VDC, -48V DC and 400V DC · Automated battery discharge and online testing · Manage new load characteristics introduced by adding server racks in the telecom environment All the above has made the installation and site configuration of a DC power plant more complex and time consuming. The large number of parameters to configure and set up during installation will increase the possibility of mistakes due to human errors. The above also requires coordinated planning for the DC power equipment installation, in many cases Facility, DC power and IT representatives need to be involved before the installation is commissioned and completed. This paper will deal with aspects and procedures on how to design a DC power plant controller based on human-centered design, which involves the following steps: · How to identify and quantify DC power controller users' pain points and obstacles · What are the frequency and priority of tasks performed on the DC power plant controller? · What functions and user interfaces are required to support the installation, operation and maintenance of the DC power plant controller? · How to deal with backward compatibility The paper describes practical experiences to develop a new DC power plant controller user interface based on human-centered design ideas.