Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

INTERDEPENDENT ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE SIMULATION SYSTEM

G. LOREN TOOLE AND ANDREW W. MCCOWN

Los Alamos National Laboratory, Threat Reduction Directorate/Decision Applications,Los Alamos, New Mexico

1 INTRODUCTION

IEISS was derived from the energy interdependence simulation (EISim) and simulation object framework for infrastructure analysis (SOFIA) software architectures that have been applied routinely at Los Alamos since the mid-1990s. The National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC), supported by the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Infrastructure Protection, funds for the use of this software. The NISAC program was established to meet the need for a comprehensive capability to assess the national system of interdependent infrastructures. In the USA PATRIOT Act of October 2001, NISAC was chartered to “serve as a source of national competence to address critical infrastructure protection and continuity through support for activities related to counter terrorism, threat assessment, and risk mitigation”.

This article discusses the underlying simulation concepts, application of interdependent energy infrastructure simulation system (IEISS) to an interdependency case study of urban infrastructure, and IEISS applications to other problems of national interest.

Interconnected and interdependent energy infrastructures are extremely complex systems, consisting of physical facilities (such as power plants and refineries), transmission lines, phone lines, roads, ...