GridOps White Papers · Information
What Does an Operator Actually Know?
Known, indicated, reported, inferred, assumed. Five words that change how a decision reads.
3 min read
Ask an operator what they know during an event and you'll get a confident list. Ask where each item came from and the list gets more interesting.
Some of it is KNOWN: confirmed, or from a fixed record. Some is INDICATED by the control system. Some is REPORTED by a crew or a customer. Some is INFERRED from other facts, like a fault location worked out from which device operated. And some is ASSUMED, often without anyone noticing it's an assumption.
None of these are bad. Operators make good decisions on reported and inferred information every day. The risk is losing track of which is which, especially when the pace picks up.
Every GridOps Decision Lab labels its information this way. The goal isn't to slow people down. It's to make the distinction automatic, so it's there when it matters.