Measuring cognitive workload and general activity of controllers in hazardous liquids and gas control rooms

Abstract

Operators of hazardous liquids, gas transmission, and gas distribution control rooms are required by the US Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to monitor the general activity of their controllers to make sure they have enough time to analyze and to react to alarms. The regulation emphasizes that these Operators monitor what controllers are doing and how often they do these activities. Pipeline Performance Group has conducted over 145 workload studies in this industry over the past six years and has created industry benchmarks to determine baseline measures of workload and general activity for controllers.