On August 14, 2003, following a series of critical events that took just 10 minutes, the North-American power grid experienced its largest black-out ever, affecting over 50 million consumers.
The decision errors of operators in power grid control centers had a dramatic impact.

To make key decisions about energy distribution, the operators overseeing the network have to navigate through several systems and tools to find the necessary information. This type of environment lends itself to human error because it places a heavy load on the attention and memory of the operator.

Cognitive performed a project for Hydro-Québec’s energy distribution operators in 2004. The technical report, “Preventing Human Errors in Power Grid Management Systems (PDF)”, explains this project and shows how a user interface can be designed to prevent human errors and significantly reduce decision time.