Control room modernisation from an evolutionary point of view - experiences gained at Loviisa power plant

The automation system, control rooms and human-system interfaces will be modernised at the Loviisa nuclear power plant in the near future. The renewal of automation systems and human-system interfaces from the 80's to the present has been an evolutionary process at the Loviisa plant. This means that there have been some leading principles that are used as a basis of the design over the decades and that have provided guidance in the design of human-system interfaces. A primary prerequisite for the success of the evolutionary approach is that some important decisions, such as the decision to present all essential process information by the process computer system, were made at the very early stage of the planning of the Loviisa plant. In addition, there has been a fixed group of designers who have a possibility during years between nuclear power plant renewals to gather useful practical experiences, for example, through participation in the design of control rooms and human-system interfaces for conventional power plants. Our aim here is to provide an overview description of the modernisation process and provide a preliminary evaluation of the progress of the modernisation project to date.