The Use of Human Factors Principles in Power Plant Design

The achievement of maximum electric power plant availability has, in the past decade, become a matter of economic necessity, and recently, a matter of increasing political necessity. It has been estimated by knowledgeable utility personnel that the average fossil fuel steam generating system currently has an availability level of approximately 70 percent and that 50 percent of the lost availability is due to human error. It has further been determined that many of these errors are situation induced. The causitive problem is then the design process.