Feasibility of a self-healing grid - part I methodology and cost models

This two part paper presents a general methodology and scalable framework for business case analyses to assess the costs and benefits of implementing a high performance IT infrastructure for a self-healing grid. The infrastructure calls for a scalable and distributed architecture as well as geographically and temporally coordinated autonomous intelligent controls to address power system operating concerns and realize major improvements in reliability. The framework facilitates the evaluation of the financial feasibility of this far reaching IT infrastructure. The methodology exploits published industry statistics regarding physical and financial attributes and can be adapted for assessment of self-healing capabilities for any power system. This Part-I focuses on the methodology and the cost models while Part-II addresses the benefit models and establishes financial feasibility of the infrastructure. The cost models include research, development and productization costs associated with algorithms and software as well as system integration and basic computing and communication hardware