Empirically evaluating and developing alarm rate standards for liquid pipeline control room operators

Recently, government entities are increasingly looking at human factors and alarm management in pipeline control rooms. In a 2005 study, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended improvements in graphics design, alarm management, human factors (e.g., fatigue), training, and leak detection. As a follow-up, in 2006 the 109th congress passed a bill that includes the adoption of American Petroleum Industry’s 1165 standard on SCADA graphics, standards for review and audit of alarms, standards for pipeline controller training, and regulations (PHMSA in Pipeline safety: control room management/human factors; proposed rule. Federal Register/Vol. 73, No. 178. 49 CFR Parts 192, 193, and 195, 2008 ) that deal with human factors in pipeline control rooms, particularly fatigue and shift work (API in API—RP 1165—2007, recommended practice for Pipeline SCADA displays. American Petroleum Institute, Washington, DC, 2007 ). These legislative efforts are being pursued in an effort to help ensure companies operate more safely, reduce economic loss, and decrease environmental damage. However, perplexity in regard to human factors and alarm management best practices still exist within the pipeline community. This study will briefly discuss some of the major components in regard to human factors considerations in pipeline control room console and display design. These concepts were applied in an experiment designed to test participant response time, acknowledgement time, and accuracy in regard to varying alarm rates and display types. Results indicate that there is a significant difference in 20 alarms in 10 min when compared to all other alarm rates. Also, there is a significant difference in 20 alarms in 10 min using a chronological display as opposed to a categorical display. Based on these findings, it is recommended that alarm rates do not exceed one alarm per minute and that a categorical type display be used in the control room for the most accurate and timely response to alarms.