A web based expert system shell for fault diagnosis and control of power system equipment

Power companies arrange regular training sessions to keep their operators ready to face blackout events, and expert systems play an important role in achieving this goal. Expert systems [1] have been proven to be an effective platform for diagnostic and control applications in power industry. Conventional expert systems are PC based and are not of much use where the expertise is required over a large network. The advent of the Internet has strongly influenced modern power systems. A web based expert system [2] is an apt solution for such environments. Existing intranet solutions are being gradually replaced with WWW services available everywhere and at any time. Originally expert systems have been used for internal purposes in different organizations. The purpose of this work is to develop a Web based expert system shell and then use it for the fault diagnosis and control [3] of traditional power system equipment with extensive information and data collected in an electrical factory. The issues of knowledge representation, development of the knowledge base and interface solution have been considered. The proposed solution is based on the pilot implementation of the web based expert system package in a large electrical factory in Visakhapatnam.