Alarm Trend Catcher: Projecting Operating Conditions in the Electrical Power Grid Domain with Interactive Alarm Visualization

Electric power grid operation is a critical activity in which control room operators supervise the status of the grid infrastructure in order to avoid undesirable situations. One of the most important tasks of this operation is projecting ahead the infrastructure state in real time. This task is currently based on managing alarms, with the responsibility of the control room operator to estimate both their relevance and evolution in time. A review of traditional alarm visualization formats highlights some deficiencies, which may lead to operating inefficiencies or even critical operating problems. Driven by a field study, this paper presents Alarm Trend Catcher, an innovative alarm visualization approach aimed at assisting not only the perception of upcoming alarms but also the projection of future states of the electric power grid. The user study of this visualization approach shows supporting evidence of its benefits for gaining interesting operational insights from the alarm information.