bp and EnBW Joint Venture
Creating a concept design for offshore wind farms control centre
Mima were contracted by bp and EnBW Joint Venture (JV) to define, in line with ISO 11064, (an international standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that provides guidance and best practices for the ergonomic design of control centers, aiming to improve operator well-being and safety) an early concept design for a Remote Operations Control Centre (ROCC) to operate three UK wind farms (Mona, Morgan and Morven).
Mima delivered in-depth work against key early parts of the ergonomics design process described in ISO 11064, including capturing the requirements for the control centre alongside the human-centred design rationale for the design decisions made and facilitating review and agreement of the design outcomes via use of VR and AR.
Our Task
The work Mima undertook covered the following parts of the ergonomics design process for control centres as described in ISO 11064:
● Phase A - Clarification
● Phase B - Analysis and Definition
● Step 7 (part of Phase C - ‘Conceptual Design,’ covering design of a conceptual framework for the control centre.
Our Solution
The Phase A work reviewed the idea for the control centre, documenting the purpose, context, resources, and constraints. The activities led by Mima included a senior stakeholder’s workshop, surveys of lived experience representatives and collaborative reviews of risks and potential issues.
The Phase B work analysed the control centre’s functional and performance requirements culminating in a preliminary functions allocation and job design. It also included consideration and discussion of the preliminary operating model for the ROCC. This included using functional and task requirements as a basis and linked to discussions regarding initial job and work organisation to build towards early thinking around task assignment to each operator.
The Step 7 work agreed the conceptual design and developed a design package incorporating a design report, 2D drawings and a 3D model. The conceptual design covered the control room and three directly adjoining rooms in some detail. It also addressed multiple associated spaces (part of the wider ROCC) at a less detailed level.
The activities led by Mima in Step 7 included interactive & collaborative design ideas and single option selection workshops as well as review of the 3D model via a structured walkthrough of the design features & associated rationale. Reviews of the design with the core JV project team were undertaken with use of a VR headset, AR
tablet, and associated repeater screens to provide an immersive experience and enhance collaborative discussion and agreement of the design outcomes.
The Step 7 report captured the requirements for the control centre (including agreed features of the design and relevant requirements from standards/regulations and other relevant requirements) alongside the human-centred design rationale for design decisions embedded in the agreed conceptual design.
The wind farms engineering team have used the output from Mima’s work to approach contractors for budgeting and to progress the design.
