Reliability of Intelligent Power Routers

In this work we seek to determine the reliability of Intelligent Power Routers (IPR). The IPR is our building block to provide scalable coordination in a distributed model for the next generation power network. Our goal in the IPR project is to show that by distributing network intelligence and control functions using the IPR, we will be capable of achieving improved survivability, security, reliability, and re-configurability. In order to calculate the change in reliability of a system operated with and without IPR, the IPR failure mechanisms and failure probabilities must be determined. Since there is no actual data on IPR reliability, none has been built; its failure mechanisms and failure probability will be established by analogy to data routers. In this paper we consider a basic IPR structure consisting of: power hardware (breakers or other power switching elements), computer hardware (communication between IPR and CPU functions), and software. We establish the failure modes for each element of the selected IPR structure to estimate the IPR reliability. This estimate of failure probability will be used in our future work to measure the change in reliability of a power system operated with and without IPR.