Enhancing human performance in the control room - sharing the experiences of British Energy

Abstract

Summary form only given. Recognising that over 70% of accidents are associated with human performance failures in operational control environments, British Energy has developed a program to address the training and development needs of control room staff. The aim was to provide control room teams with the requisite human performance tools to eliminate the potential for human error and thereby enhance operational safety, reliability and efficiency. A key enabler within this program has been the introduction of a crew resource management training package entitled 'Human Performance Foundation'. Approximately 1000 operations staff associated with control room operations have taken part in the program. It serves not only to raise awareness of best practices in human performance issues but also to set the standards and expectations for control room operations and to address the often-neglected softer issues associated with communications, awareness, behaviour and teamwork. The key elements of the training are: understanding failures in human performance; conduct of operations; effective communications; situational awareness; decision-making; behaviour choice; performance management; and high-performance team skills.