Toward a self-healing energy infrastructure

Virtually every crucial economic and social function depends on the secure, reliable operation of energy, telecommunications, transportation, financial, and other infrastructures. The nature of electricity demand is undergoing a profound shift in industrialized nations across the globe. From a strategic R&D viewpoint, agility and robustness/survivability of large-scale dynamic networks that face new and unanticipated operating conditions will be presented. A major challenge is posed by the lack of a unified mathematical framework with robust tools for modeling, simulation, control and optimization of time-critical operations in complex multicomponent and multiscaled networks. New tools and techniques are being developed to enable large national infrastructures to function in ways that are self-stabilizing, self-optimizing, and self-healing. This presentation will focus on a strategic vision extending to a decade, or longer, that would enable more secure and robust systems operation, security monitoring and efficient energy markets.