Equinor Hywind Tampen – Human Factors

Equinor will, through the Hywind Tampen project, replace electrical energy generated by gas turbines with power from a floating offshore wind farm to reduce CO2 emissions. The wind farm will be connected to Gullfaks A and Snorre A in a ring solution with a total of 11 wind turbines. The existing gas turbines will provide back up power and contribute to balance the power fluctuations caused by varying wind, but mainly the power will come from the wind. This implies a need for good interaction in the organization to optimize power consumption and reduce CO2 emissions.

IFE has been commissioned to carry out a Human Factors (HF) analysis that focuses on tasks and interaction between the central stakeholders that will be responsible for control and monitoring of the wind farm and control of the power system which consists of combined power from wind and gas turbines. The key roles include control room operators and power station operators on the Gullfaks A and C and Snorre A and B platforms, as well as the Equinor Wind Farm Control Room and Siemens Gamesa Wind Control Room (wind turbine supplier).

The goal of the HF analysis is to identify and evaluate:

• Necessary control and monitoring functions
• Tasks that will be necessary for Equinor to achieve efficient operation
• Allocation of functions and tasks (between roles and automation)
• Information needs between roles and from human machine interface systems (HMI)
• Consideration of the need for cooperation between the central roles

IFE’s work on the HF analysis started in September 2018 and will be completed in the spring of 2019. During the project period, we have completed six workshops with over 20 people from different roles in Equinor. The following IFE resources have contributed:

Linda Sofie Lunde-Hanssen, Project Manager (Control Room and Interaction Design, CRI)

Jan Erik Farbrot (Applied Data Science, ADS)

Per Kristiansen (Control Room and Interaction Design, CRI)

Roy Stenbro (Wind Energy, WIND)

Read more: Equinor Hywind Tampen.