This paper has discussed the effect of situation awareness on
the reliability of power systems. SA is becoming increasingly
important as the size and complexity of power systems increase.
The identification of the factors that govern operators’ SA is vitally
important in the design of decision support tools. Many
of the problems related with SA can be traced back to technology-
centered designs. A user-centered approach to design
would contribute to the enhancement of system operators’ performance,
because it is based on the actual needs of the users
from an operational perspective. A key factor to the development
of complex technologies is the perception that what really
matters is the picture of the system that human operators manage
to form in their minds, no matter the amount of the information
that is presented to them.