Traffic-Control Station

the center of a centralized traffic-control system at which information on the status of production, the movement of transportation, electric power supply, and the progress of construction is concentrated. A traffic-control station includes an operations room (duty hall or office), where the dispatcher works; an equipment room, with auxiliary equipment; a testing and repair shop, with personnel on duty to service the station’s equipment; and auxiliary premises. The dispatcher’s (operator’s) work area and the traffic-control console and panel are located in such a way that the dispatcher has a good view of all control instruments, signaling elements, screens (indicators), and information and closed-circuit television displays.

The size and equipment of a traffic-control station depend on the type and nature of processes being monitored and on the projects being regulated. For example, the traffic-control station at an industrial enterprise is characterized by the predominance of graphic methods of showing the production process by means of diagrams, planograms, and grid graphs, which are placed directly over the dispatcher’s desk; monitoring, recording, and signaling apparatus is built into the desk. In electric power systems, the most important part of the traffic-control station is automatic signaling and metering, which require constant monitoring; this determines the placement of the corresponding equipment and instruments on a panel in front of the traffic-control console. The number of dispatchers working at a given time depends on the complexity of the control system and the amount of incoming information. At modern enterprises with highly developed automation of production and a large volume of incoming information at the traffic-control station, where regulatory work is conducted using electronic computers, the traffic-control station is in direct proximity to the enterprise’s data processing center and often forms with it a single unit of an automated control system.