Digital Energy

The safe operation of gas and electricity grids is ensured by technologies and the broad experience of control center personnel. The growing technological and systemic complexity of energy systems and the increased risk of cyber attacks are leading to an increase in process information. The aim of the BMBF-funded project "Beautiful" is to optimize the working conditions of control center personnel in critical infrastructures.

Control center personnel are responsible for the safe and reliable operation of gas and electricity grids. While critical grid situations were previously often caused by physical impacts on the infrastructure, such as damage to lines caused by excavation work, complex cross-sector dependencies and cyber-attacks must also be considered as a source of danger in future.

For safe cross-sector control more and more system information is coming together in the control centers. To manage this rapidly growing complexity more and more digital technologies are being used. This in turn increases the risk of cyber attacks. The causes of critical network conditions are therefore becoming more diverse and the potential impact greater.

The project "Beautiful" is developing assistance systems for monitoring and control tasks. The assistance systems are intended to support safe decisions in complex situations within the shortest possible time. Transparency and trust in these systems are to be supported by a standardized evaluation of the added value for control center personnel.

Control center simulators are being developed to determine the added value of the assistance systems under realistic conditions. In addition to the classic control room equipment, these are equipped with measurement technology such as eye-tracking and intelligent shirts that determine the physiopsychological states of control room personnel.

In a series of studies, test participants will be exposed to different stress scenarios in the control room simulators. The measurement technology can be used to evaluate the influence of these scenarios on the physiopsychological states of the participants and the added value of the assistance systems developed.

The project is being led by Fraunhofer FIT. Together with the Fraunhofer FKIE, the Fraunhofer research team is working on the ergonomic investigation of control centers, the construction of a control center simulator and the development of assistance systems to defend against cyber-attack scenarios.