GUI Display Guidelines Drive Winning SCADA Projects Koustuv Ghoshall and Larry D.Douglas? cm orm the vr face (UD)product can determine From a project management how successfully the dispatchers core of any supervisory control point of view,emphasis will accept the new system.An and data acquisition (SCADA) opinion survey of electric utilities system.The efficiency of a GUI on operational productivity conducted a few years ago by an system can easily determine the independent market-research productivity of operations of any has caused a paradigm agency found that a majority of energy management system shift in SCADA/EMS those surveyed considered ease (EMS).Over the last couple of graphical user interfaces of operations of user interfaces years,the entire concept of GUl and full-graphics capabilities as systems has changed probably the principal factors that deter- more than any other aspect in a mine an efficient GUI system. SCADA/EMS system.Electric utilities have increasingly Graphical user interface has become one of the primary felt the need to automate their operational features to tools necessary for distribution automation.For any keep pace with changing technology,particularly the electric utility that is planning a SCADA/EMS system for way their operators interface with the distribution sys- the future,GUI will constitute a growing portion of the tem.This rapidly changing philosophy with which the utility industry views GUl systems today has resulted in a so-called paradigm shift,from the project management point of view.Though the basic functionalities that constitute a SCADA/EMS-GUI system more or MULTI-VENDOR INTERFACE Product-n less remain the same,the areas where today's GUls differ from the ones of the past Product-1 decade are mainly in the visual presentation of information to the operators and the mode of operation of the various functions.Tech- SCADA/EMS GUI SYSTEM nological advancements are enabling sys- tems to be more and more open by breaking the barriers of proprietary platforms.and today's GUI systems become more and more versatile with many advanced functions to facilitate operations. With a plethora of GUI vendors in today's marketplace.each of which claims to have Operator Console Operator Console the perfect product for a prospective cus- tomer's needs.how does the future Figure I.An open GUI system SCADA/EMS customer decide which product is the most suitable for his or her operational needs? budget.To ensure its proper investment,the concerned Lately,this has become one of the most important pro utility must invest a major amount of its resources in the ject management issues at the very onset of a new project planning stage toward developing GUI display SCADA/EMS project.The proper choice of the user inter- guidelines.This article enumerates the major parame- ters that should be evaluated at the very beginning of a SCADA/EMS project to choose the most efficient GUl Garland Power Light product.Though every customer's needs are different. 2 Johnson Yokogawa Corporation any GUI system still should have the following chief 55N95015694/540L99EEE ADnl199439
characteristics: can only be achieved using nonproprietary.multiplat- Open system approach form compatible GUl products.The biggest benefit of Seamless interface features such a concept is the ability to choose from a variety of Ease of user operation products.This feature enhances the flexibility of the GUl Acceptability by the operators system and increases the potential for future expansion without having to resort to an expensive GUl-platform Open System Approach overhaul in the future.A prospective GUl customer Electric utilities'demands for modularity and flexibility should also look into database access integration ser- have tremendously affected the user interface aspect of vices (DAIS)and EPRI's on-going study on standard SCADA systems.Distribution operations traditionally application programming interfaces (APls)in order to require a very complex information system because of have a common set of GUl features.DAIS facilitates data the sheer volume of data that is typically displayed or access across the variety of databases and systems. an EMS operator's console.Data is collected from a vari ety of applications and presented to the user in a man Seamless Interface ner that requires minimum data redundancy Operation engineers and designers should be able to Applications could very well be retrieved from potential- pick and choose from a variety of products available in the market to interface with a common GUI platform,with mini- mal integration or compatibility problems.A major criteria in achieving such seamless integra- tion is a windows-based GUl.This kind of an interface is more intu- itive and prompts users to make choices rather than remember what to search for.The window- based system concept allows users to ignore barriers between computer systems and operating environments.Just as Windows has opened a whole new area of graphical interface,it will also help if vendors adopt and adhere to a GUI standard like Motifr and build their products based on X-WindowsTM.(There are a number of GUls that X can run behind,but Motif is by far the most common).This would allow the operators to look into several windows driven by different stan- Figure 2.Screening and zooming of information in a layered GUl dards-based GUls,yet experience the same look and feel.This does not necessarily mean that the old ly different platforms.A well-conceived GUl product non-Motif or non-Windows based GUls be discarded. strives to accommodate the integration of such data.as The two systems can be effectively tied together by conceptualized in Figure 1. using X-based interface on X-compliant software pack- One of the major problems of the transition in opera ages to establish a communications infrastructure tional philosophy that is taking place in today's between the two concepts.The major advantage with X- SCADA/EMS world,i.e.the whole concept of enterprise- Windows is that it is network based wide systems,is the skepticism of the operators toward One of the biggest user benefits of Windows systems the concept.To operators.enterprise-wide integration is the predictability of operation.Once users have typically means that designers provide them with learned to use a windows system.they can use any win- diverse systems that have dissimilar,proprietary GUls dows application based on the same design philosophy. that are all too often on separate terminals.The first car- To the developer.the benefits are manifold too.The dinal rule of an effective enterprise-wide GUl is that it display builder has the luxury of device independent 40 IEEE Computer Applications in Power
graphics and an enormous library of graphic routines.A solely on memory common GUl platform also provides the capability of .Provide the operator with feedback on task execu- being independent of database structures and data resi- tion (i.e."busy"or "work in progress,"etc.) dency. Increase the use of mouse functionality and mini- The primary tool/technique that has evolved in the mize typing by the user last few years to facilitate the use of such a platform is Provide the user with an option to exit before exe full graphics,which has revolutionized the user interface cuting destructive requests. aspect of utility automation.Some of the basic features These goals enable the GUI system to build a world- that a windows-based full graphics GUl system can pro- coordinate system and to provide an enhanced operator vide are: interface with the following functions. Intuitive interface *Zooming allows the user to increase or decrease Flexibility the scope of data being displayed. Common derivability Layering and decluttering allows the user to Configuration of function completion screen information for presentation of data that is Underlying procedural and/or protocol benefits pertinent to a particular zoom level (see Figure 2). These features increase the operator's productivity In this case,devices that need to show only at a by providing the information needed during any activity higher zoom level have been screened (for exam- that requires the user to interact with a system applica- ple,certain telemetered switches). tion.A GUl that contains these characteristics allows the Panning allows the user to navigate from one loca- user to customize the work area in the operator's con- tion in the display (maybe in a substation one-line sole according to individual needs.This also allows the diagram)to another. operator both textual and graphi- cal interfaces to adapt quite readi- A ly to user preferences Nowadays,more and more users are required to perform multiple functions from different windows on the same terminal. The operations methodology in this multivendor product environ- ment must be intuitive.In addi- tion to making the operators more productive.this also goes a long way towards decluttering desks of unnecessary hardware Ease of User Operation Any effective user interface must be designed to allow the user to be in control.The first step toward achieving such a goal is for utility customers to develop their own GUI display guidelines. The best way to utilize the avail able GUl features to make an operator's job more productive is for the display design to foster a Figure 3.Arrangement of viewports consistent user-interface environ ment that is powerful but simple A display must provide clear and concise communica- *Rotation allows users to orient maps to better suit tion between the user and the system application.For their individual needs. the ease of user operation,the primary goals of any dis Navigation beacons are windows within a one-line play design must be to accomplish the following: display that help orient users by pinpointing their Minimize clutter in the display console location from a world-coordinate perspective. Strive for consistency in operational philosophy Viewport arrangement allows the user to arrange Rely on user intuition and recognition,and not and group objects and displays within a viewport April 1994 41
with a logical progression of screens.A sample of or viewports)is a big plus point with the operators such a case is shown in Figure 3. The process of modernization from the user-interface products of the last decade to the new state of-the-art Full Graphics Facilities full graphics concept is still in a state of transition.Many As SCADA/EMS systems become more sophisticated,so utilities are experiencing an involuntary resistance from too do the demands placed on operator-interface the operators to this change.This can mainly be attrib- aspects of the systems.Full graphics seems to provide uted to the fact that the transition might have been too answers to many (if not all)of these demands.The prin- drastic in some cases and thus came across to the oper- ciple reason for the versatility of this concept is that full ators as a culture shock.To circumvent this major issue, graphics is based on the following inherent qualities. the very first step in the project planning stage is to It supports a flexible and easy-to-use display editor. involve the operations group actively,especially the which includes necessary features like primitives,sym- operators.At least one operator should be made an inte- bols,menus,pictures,selectable graphic,and condition- gral part of the project team.Operator feedback at the al attributes,etc.,that help in the creation of functions requirement definition stage is of paramount impor- and facilities like pop-up pictures/menus,multiple-lay- tance.If possible,a pilot display system should be creat- ers,conditional elements,etc. ed at first for initial refinement and redesign.A GUl Full graphics is Motif-compliant and based on X-Win- display will automatically evolve into an efficient tool for dows,which gives it the ability to concurrently display automation if it is allowed to go through a step-by-step multiple viewports,supports cut and paste between process of reengineering,before being considered a final viewports,resizing and repositioning of viewports, product.The efforts of the display developers will go to definable and redefinable functions and alphanumeric waste if their product is not accepted by the keys,and iconification and deiconification of view- SCADA/EMS operators ports. Running under multiple operating systems and hard- Acknowledgments ware platforms,full graphics systems can import geo With special emphasis on the GUl aspect of a graphical information system (GIS)maps and SCADA/EMS project,this article follows up on the "Pro appropriate automated mapping and facilities manage ject Planning for EMS and SCADA Systems"article by ment (AM/FM)data. Charles T.Lindeberg and Wayne R.Block that was pub- lished in the October 1993 issue of IEEE Computer Appli- Operator Acceptance cations in Power.October 1993. The crux of this whole article is that a graphical user The authors thank Bill Tweddle and Floyd Combs for interface should be designed from the user's point of their valuable suggestions view.One of the cardinal rules of good user-interface design is to assume that the user does not necessarily For Further Reading have to be a computer analyst.A software designer Digital Equipment Corporation.XUTSyle Guide.December 1988. tends to think in terms of implementing functions James G.Cupp,"A Management Perspective on Open Systems." Transmission Distribution,November 1992. whereas,SCADA operators tend to visualize systems in TA.Green,A.Bose,"Open Systems Benefit Energy Control Cen- terms of tasks and the interface.User-friendliness is the ters,"IEEE Computer Applications in Power,July 1992. hallmark of an efficient interface design.The acceptance EPRI Display Design Handbook. of any new GUl system by the operators is directly dependent on how easy and predictable it is to use.The Biographies useability of any display is affected by the way the dis- Koustuv Ghoshal is an electrical engineer in the Engineering department of Garland Power Light (GP&L),Garland.Texas.He play has been designed,user documentation and train- is responsible for the man-machine interface aspects of the ing. SCADA/EMS system.He holds a BSEE from Regional Engineering The primary motive behind this new display design College.Rourkela,India,and an MSEE from the Energy Systems concept is to make the repetitive tasks of the control- Research Center at the University of Texas at Arlington,where he room operators more comfortable.After all,the ultimate was actively involved in developing new techniques in substation end user is the SCADA/EMS operator and the user inter- automation.Prior to his joining GP&L,he worked at an overseas Du Pont project as an electrical project engineer.He is a member face must support the day-to-day job responsibilities of of IEEE the operators.Different users may perceive the same sys- Lamry D.Douglas holds a BS and an MS from the University of tem in different ways.As an example,generation,trans- Minnesota.He has about 24 years of experience in SCADA/EMS mission,and distribution operators tend to have different applications and systems,first at Northern States Power Company. conceptual models of the same electric system.Thus, then at the Energy Management Systems Division of Control Data Corporation,and now at Johnson Yokogawa Corporation (JYC).He each of them may customize his or her console to reflect is currently the manager of Customer Services at JYC.He is also a different viewport configurations.Being able to easily cre member of IEEE PES System Control and Distribution Subcommit ate their own rooms (i.e.a customized group of displays tees and various other task forces. 42 IEEE Computer Applicotions in Power
