Intelligent multi-agent framework for power system control and protection

In this paper, we propose a multi-agent methodology (MAM) for power system monitoring and protection. The uniqueness of the proposed architecture is the ability of MAM to evolve in the wake of an attack of malicious intent by mutation and thus always monitoring a power system bus remotely. Also, the architecture interacts with the mutated agents use a voting methodology thus alleviating the effect of agent malfunction in the presence of attack. This architecture also enables inter-agent communication which makes a collaborative framework and increases the degree of fault tolerance and leads to immediate problem solving. This architecture is tested on a two area network with five equivalent generators and 8 bus power networks for abnormal condition detection, generator bus isolation and also restoring power to the area which is affected by the bus isolation. Simulation studies indicate that the proposed methodology is capable of not only detecting the power grid attack but can also continuously monitor and isolate the generator bus even in the presence of sustained attack as the agents are regenerated.