A Multidimensional Workload Assessment Method for Power Grid Dispatcher

Dispatcher’s error is an important factor affecting the safe operation of power system. One of the main causes of human error is inappropriate workload. Due to the particularity of the power dispatching work process, existing workload measures are not ideal for power dispatcher. According to the human information processing model, combined with the actual work of dispatchers, this article proposed a novel method for dispatcher workload assessment. It considered dispatcher’s workload from four dimensions: information perception, speech output, action output and attention. Video, audio and physiological monitor were deployed to acquire descriptive features. The frequency of incoming calls was extracted to describe information perception. Short-term energy and spectral entropy of the speech signal were extracted to describe speech output. Body movement speed was extracted to describe action output and heart rate was used to describe attention. The method was applied to an experiment in the dispatcher training simulator involving qualified power dispatchers. The experimental results showed that the proposed method was applicable and it can effectively reflect changes of dispatcher’s workload during troubleshooting tasks.