Digital Inclusion Plan For The UK Elderly

This blog came about because of my volunteering work at the Harrogate library. The library has a program of teaching the elderly in the use of digital devices and to access the internet. The aim of the program to ensure that all member of the society appreciate the benefits of the internet and how best to use it for their own requirement. I am writing this page to highlight the importance of having full access to the internet by all member of the society. it’s benefit to the individual and the society as a whole are outlined in the brief below, with links to UK government site and also a link to the AGE UK site.

To persuade the elderly people to embrace the digital, four challenges must be over come;

  • Access
  • Skills
  • Trust
  • Motivation

Not everyone may not be affected by all the four challenges, but by at least one of them. When ask the reason for not being online, over 60% said they were not interested, and over a third are worried about privacy issues. UK government must develop a strategy to persuade people to go online and use the internet to use public services and also discover life online.

It is estimated that four out of ten aged over 65 do not have access to the internet at home. It is important to show the benefit of being online, to an ageing society. Being able to access family and friends, near and far, via email or social media will bring people and communities together and alleviate social isolation. Maintaining these relationships are healthy for an ageing society vulnerable to loneliness and social exclusion. It is estimated that one and ten people has visited their GP because they find themselves lonely. AGE UK states that loneliness is a huge issue that affect people all year round. It can become a major and expensive problem for the NHS. Over a million people over age 65 say that they feel lonely.

Getting older people online can save the government a massive £1.7 billion a year (Policy Exchange), and will improve some aspect of their health by being online and socially inclusive. Yet, at the same time it is also important to give the elderly a choice in accessing public services. A trip to the Post Office for real human contact is just as important as providing online access.

Research shows that at a cost of just £140 for every person currently online,the government could get entire population online by 2020. At a cost of £875 million to teach the 6.2 million people, the government would bring dramatic social and economic benefit to Britain. It is important that everyone in a society is able to use the internet and realise its benefits. The internet and digital services are an important part of the UK economy. In 2011 alone this sector contributed £58 billion to the UK economy.

Benefits to the People ( A UK Government Report)

Digital services are becoming the default option for accessing public services, information, entertainment and each other. In 2013, 36 million adults (73%) in Britain accessed the internet every day. Those who are offline and not capable of using the internet risk missing out on the benefits that the internet can offer.

For individuals, this can mean reduced costs of living. Households offline are missing out on savings of £560 per year from shopping and paying bills online, or being able to keep in touch with family members and friends.

The internet also provides improved job prospects as being digitally capable is critical in finding and securing a job.

Similarly, reducing digital exclusion can help address many wider equality, social, health and wellbeing issues such as isolation. 81% of people over 55 say being online makes them feel part of modern society and less lonely.

Age UK: Introducing Another World

UK Government Digital Inclusion Strategy.

 

My Book List

I recommend these books. You will have an enjoyable read if you like reading books on various topics.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens

Ines of my Soul – Book by Isabel Allende

This Boy – Alan Johnson

Bloody Foreigners – Robert Winder

Leo The African – Amin Maalouf.

Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck (1937)

East of Eden – John Steinbeck (1952)

The Museum of Innocence – by Orhan Pamuk

Snow – by Orhan Pamuk

My name is Red – Orhan Pamuk

The White Castle – Orhan Pamuk

Twilight in Delhi – Ahmed Ali (1940)

Three Negro Classics

“I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.”

Up from Salvery – Booker T Washington
The Souls of Black Folk – WEB DuBois
The autobiography of an ex-coloured man -JW Johnson

Mystical Dimension of Islam – Dr. Anne-Marie Schimmel

Chavs by Owen Jones

Empires of Indus by Alice Albinia
Alice travels upstream from Karachi to the source of Indus.It takes the reader back in time through 2000 miles in geography and 5000 years of history. It reveals the rich and varied heritage of Indus. An inspiring book. It tells the story of adventure, discovery and courage. A story of travel and history. Alice intertwines the present and the past, talking to the present inhabitants and telling the history of the bygone era. A well researched book, and must read for the people of the Indus.

Alarms Reduction in Control Room to enhance Operator response.

Introduction
There has been a marked increase in the number of telemetry points being monitored and controlled from a Control Center. This can be mainly due to many expansion programs going on in a company. These could include large capital projects, or just facility upgrades. Now, the question need to be asked if such a high number of alarms improves or hamper the operators response. When it comes to monitoring plants and power systems, more alarms are not necessarily better. A proliferation of alarms can overwhelm an operator during an emergency, impairing his ability to respond quickly and correctly. An alarm flood can result and reduce the operator’s effectiveness to respond in an emergency. It can lead to a critical alarm going unnoticed and being masked by less important alarms.

What is the purpose of an alarm system?
Purpose of any alarm system is to direct the operator’s attention towards condition requiring timely assessment and action to prevent the situation escalating.

Alarm management is an important function in any SCADA system. One of the most common causes of unplanned downtime is a failure to respond effectively during plant disturbances. About 40% of the losses in the industry are attributes to human error and are deemed preventable. The engineers must always is look to improve the presentation of alarms to the operators so that they can respond correctly in a timely manner to prevent a potential disaster. Both SCADA and operation engineers need to work together to improve the current alarm system function in Control Center environment.

Below are outlined some definitions, and steps that can be taken to improve alarm system in a Control Center.

What is an alarm?
A warning to the operator that immediate action is required to correct a prevailing condition in the plant.

What is Alarm Management?
A process by which alarms are engineered, monitored, and managed to ensure safe and reliable company operations. Alarm management is like a safety program, and is an ongoing process. Continuous Improvement and performance monitoring is essential.

Why so many alarms?
In the old analog days, alarms were hard-wired. There was a cost associated to each alarm, and they were carefully designed and installed. In the days of the DCS, alarms are generally free, and therefore every possible alarm is enabled.

How does improving An Alarm System help an Operator?
The operator can focus on important alarms, he can suppress meaningless alarms as needed, and he can quickly asses operating condition based on clear, concise and consistent message descriptions. Operator can gather information as to the cause of the incident and apply the recommended corrective action. Evaluating alarm system and operator performance is an essential part of a good alarm system.

Four Phases to improve an Alarm System
Improving an existing alarm system consist of four phases as outlined below. A good analysis tool that identifies which devices are creating the most alarms is essential for any measurable improvement. It can help determine the most frequent alarms, the chattering alarms, the nuisance alarms. It helps us see where and when alarms occur, helping one to deduce the cause to see why there are alarms floods and perhaps re-prioritize the alarms.

PHASE 1 – Alarms Analysis
To improve an existing alarms system an analysis is required to identify the main areas where effort should be focused.

1. Alarm and Event Historizing – captures all alarm and event information from SCADA. Analysis can be done to identify frequent alarms, chattering alarms, and operator response to an alarm.
2. Alarm Priorities (80/15/5) – EEMUA (appendix-1) recommends to maximize operator effectiveness, there should be only three different sets of alarm priorities. Define prioritization rules and apply them consistently to each alarm. Base your priority on the potential consequences if the operator fails to respond. Prioritize 5% high priority, 15% medium priority and 80% low priority.
3. Alarm Messages – Make sure the alarm messages are clear and meaningful, and not just Tag ID. An engineer may configure a device using the Tag ID, but the planner needs to know whether it is pressure, temperature or a level of a device. The message should be such that operator understands it without any ambiguities.
4. Alarm limits – Check all limits are correctly set as per the standard
5. Alarm dead bands – Check all limits are correctly set as per the standard
6. Reduce the percentage Disabled, Inhibited and Standing alarms.
7. Check if alarm priority set but alarm is not from a remote.
8. Have a defined response to each alarm.
9. The engineer must play an active role with new project. Where relevant, group alarms together to bring one alarm e.g. Loss of DC to all 86 L/O relays.
10. All solar power RTUs must have their voltages monitored and alarmed.
11. Reduce total number of alarms by using RTU software to parallel similar type (loss of DC) in the RTU itself and send a single alarm to control Center..

PHASE 2 – Alarm Rationalization
Rationalization is the process of determining the reason for an alarm and its correct settings. One must ask the questions, is this alarm required? How to implement it?

1. Review Alarm Configuration
2. Resources Required
a.Operator,
b. Operation engineer
c. Software engineer
3. Clean Up database
4. Alarm Rationalization Process
a. What is the purpose of the alarm
b. Action required by operator
c. Consequences of failure to respond
d. Can the operator prevent or control the situation
e. Time required to respond
5. Operator Training on the Alarm System

Phase 3 – Performance of alarm system

1. Average number of alarm per hour
2. Max number of alarm per hour
3. Number of hours when alarm rates outside acceptable target

Phase 4 – Advance Solutions

1. Sorting & Filtering – Operator should be able to sort in a number of ways.
2. Alarm Grouping – Combining alarms into urgent and non urgent categories.
3. Alarm Shelving – Unnecessary alarms could be temporarily moved to shelves. Chattering alarms can be moved to shelves for a time.
4. Alarm Eclipsing – alarm messages that are repeatedly activated by the same tag can be collapsed and displayed as a single line. ( alarms from a single device)

Conclusion
Proper analyses of alarms and events in a SCADA system can reveal significant areas where improvement may be necessary. Phase 1 can be implemented immediately in the present SCADA systems. Minimizing the number of alarms reduces operator fatigue and stress, and allows him to focus on the critical alarms and take corrective action. Alarms must also be compared against best practices and industry guidelines from EEMUA and ISA. A good alarm system is important in any operations. Poorly functioning alarm systems have been identified again and again as contributing factors in many industrial accidents. Improvement in an alarm system can avoid costly plant upsets, resulting in significant economic benefits by reducing and avoiding unplanned outages.

References:
1. EEMUA 191: Alarm Systems. A Guide to Design, Management and Procurement, 1999.
2. Norwegian Petroleum Directorate YA-711: Principles for alarm system design, 2001.
3. ISA RP18.2 Management of Alarm Systems for the Process Industries
4. Namur NA102: Alarm Management. 2005

Appendix 1 – EEMUA 191
EEMUA 191
Following a number of high profile disasters such as Texaco Milford Haven (1994) and The Channel Tunnel (1996), a significant interest developed in Alarm Management Systems. The inadequacy of the Alarm Management System was cited as a contributory factor in these two disasters. Time and time again alarm floods and poor alarm prioritization are the culprits. In Texaco Milford Haven, operators received 275 alarms in the 11 minutes before the disaster.
An Alarm Management guideline was raised by the Engineering Equipment and Materials Users Association (EEMUA 191) in 1999 and is now considered to be the definitive Alarm Management reference document.
The Engineering Equipment and Materials Users’ Association, (EEMUA), is a European based, industry Association run for the benefit of companies that own or operate industrial facilities. EEMUA aims to improve the safety, environmental and operating performance of industrial facilities in the most cost-effective way. EEMUA Members pursue these aims by sharing engineering experiences and expertise, and by the promotion of their distinct interests as the users of engineering products.

Alarms recommendation by EEMUA

Ave Alarms Per Day, 144
Ave Standing Alarms, 9
Peak Alarms per 10 min, 10
Ave Alarm per 10 min, 1
Distribution % Low/Med/High is 80/15/5

Traveling Memories

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
– Mark Twain

Seychelles, May 2011
May, 2011. Qatar flight to Seychelles in summer of 2011, from Bahrain. Got over to Bahrain via the Causeway. It was getting very hot in Dhahran, so had to get away to get a bit of respite from the dust and heat. Qatar Airways were offering “buy one get one free”. Had to take the offer, as I had been planning visiting the islands since the 1980’s. After about 4 hours we were landing in Victoria, Mahe. It was early morning. Took a taxi to our hotel Le Meridiene Fisherman’s Cove. An election had taken place and the incumbent had won due to the women vote, as per our driver. Our driver was seething with anger because the incumbent had won due to support from women voters, they were to blame and so on.

The Airport is small but all the staff seem very friendly. We were booked at Le Meridien Fishermens Cove. Barbarons is other Meridien Hotel on the Island. Both hotels open onto the beach. We had a very pleasant stay at the Fisherman’s Cove. Facilities were good, food was good and staff was very friendly. They served really good breakfast, my favourite meal of the day when on holiday. You sit amongst lush green plants and palms, small birds would fly in to get crumbs from the table. Looked forward to having afternoon teas, pastries, cakes and sandwiches with tea, coffee and juices.

Le Meridiene Fishermans Cove is a very nice hotel. Reception area and lounge opening onto the sea where we relaxed while our rooms were made ready. Friendly staff offered us breakfast, once we had showered in their spa rooms. During our stay, Breakfast was the best meal in the hotel and afternoon teas were served every day. Really enjoyed our stay at the hotel.

We spent our time walking the beach, swimming, touring other beaches on the Island. Took the local buses, explored the island and mingled with the locals. Visited a British artist residing on Mahe. Discovered the only Mosque and visited a Hindu Temple and the local Library. There is a small fish and vegetable market worth a visit. Discovered a water hole, The Pirate Arms, where the locals come to cool off . The middle of the day gets hot and you do need a drink to cool off.

The locals are very friendly. Native speak Creole, French and English. There are people of Indian origin as well and most are into small business and construction. Natives spend most of their spare time on the beaches, which are clean, with blue water and lush green back drop.

Our hotel was on Beau Vallon beach, which is nice clean beach.The locals use it and fishing boats are also seen catching fish short distance from the beach. In the early morning you can catch the fishermen take their boats out and spreading the nets. This an active beach right into the night. There are restaurant on the beach. Nearby stalls are available selling, souvenirs, tasty creole snacks, drinks and beach wear.

In Victoria, walk along Church Street, Albert Street and Independence Ave. See the Clock tower, three birds square, Post Office , The Courts, Nat History Museum. Main industry is tuna fishing, the smell from the canning factory can linger on during the day. You Can find secluded beaches all along Mahe’ s coast, they have lush green back drop, with clean white sandy beaches.

Creole food is generally a platter of fish, accompanied by small dishes of fish, chicken and vegetables. But fast food is also available.

All variety of sea shells can be acquired from stall on the road towards the library and the national park. Visit Michael Adams Studio – for silk screen prints, village life and Forrest paintings.

In Seychelles you can go Island hopping. Many Islands make up Seychelles. Mahe is the main Island, followed by Praslin and La Digue. We took a Ferry to Praslin. Takes about one and half hour on the Indian Ocean. Everything’s fine for an hour or so on the sea, but then you start to get sea sick and wish your feet were on the land. Everyone is laid-back, so no need to hurry along, as everything moves at a slow pace.

Praslin is a laid-back island. It took over an hour on the ferry in the Indian Ocean. Some got sick. I kept looking at the waves but did get a bit sick towards the end. On the island people are living basic life, coconut growing, some cinnamon but mainly on tourism. There is Forrest area ‘ Valle de Mei’ where you can see the female coco de Mer, two coconuts appeared joined together which are shaped like human backside.

La Digue – laid back style. Anse Source d’Argent beach bizaar and where’d rock formation. Sculpted by nature. Location for the film Castaway. Is prettiest of all islands. No transport, few taxis, brightly painted ox drawn carts for taxis. Bikes. Best way to meet people is by walking around the island.
Soft sandy beaches and clear blue water as seen in movies. Probably the best Island for the beach lovers.

Really had nice easy, relaxing time and enjoyed eating piazza at the small family restaurant, Baobab, on the beach. The floor is made of sand. Everything comes at a slow pace. This trip was relaxing, and really holiday away from the daily hustle of working life.

<a href=”http://alimx.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/20130703-150854.jpg”>20130703-150854.jpg

 

20130703-151027.jpg

20130703-151104.jpg

 

20130703-193935.jpg

20130703-194037.jpg

20130703-233221.jpg

Power System Control Center

A Power Control Center is the nerve center of a power system. It monitors frequency, demand and loadings on the transmission lines. It also monitors the protective devices that protect the power system components such as transmission lines, transformers and generators. SCADA(Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and EMS (Energy Management System) systems are used in the Control Center to manage the flow of power, meet the daily demand and protect the power system components and monitor any alarms being generated.

One of the key measurement to monitor is the ‘system frequency’. This is the speed at which the generators are spinning (50 cycles per seconds). To keep the frequency at 50cps, the customer power demand must be always equal to the generation supply in a power system. This balance is achieved by keeping the frequency at 50cps at all time. The operator responsible for generation must know the daily demand profile. Generally demand is low at night, but during the day may have two peaks, one in the morning and one in the evening. As the demand increases, the operator can bring on new generators on to the system or require online generator to produce more if they have spare capacity. Sometime the operator has control over some generators, for some he calls the power plants. Generators can automatically make corrections for minor changes in customer demand increases. The power company is required to meet the daily power demand and yet must maintain the the power system frequency at 50cps( also known as 50 hertz or 50Hz).

Real Time data is collected from the power plant through remote devices connected to the control center via communication lines. This data includes power flow, alarms, frequency and voltage levels. Monitoring of alarms are the key to keeping continuity of power to the customers. When alarms are received from transformers, generators or transmission lines corrective action is required to prevent a power black out. The control room operator must take corrective action in a given time to arrest a deteriorating condition such as a fault on a component or excessive loading on a transmission line. Therefore, the operators perform a key function in the entire power system to ensure customers continually receive electricity. They must have the correct tools to do their jobs e.g. 99.99% availability of EMS, SCADA, Alarm Management Application. And must be only burdened with so many alarms in a given time. They must never be flooded with alarms in an emergency situation. If this happens they are bound to loose ‘operation situational awareness’ and take the wrong action. This can result in a major disaster on the power system.

Saudi Aramco Control Center