Application of Multi-agent Systems to Microgrid Fault Protection Coordination

In conventional power systems, client-server architecture and centralized control are adopted for data acquisition and supervisory control, and the speed of message transmission and the fault responses is slow. In contrast, various types of distributed energy resources (DERs) with different characteristics and of different capacities exist in a microgrid system, and client-server architecture and centralized control are inadequate for control and operation purpose. In this study, an example microgrid system with a multi-agent system which complies with FIPA (Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents) standard is proposed and built using MATLAB/Simulink and Java Agent Development Framework (JADE). The operations of and among the intelligent electronic devices (IEDs), circuit breakers (CBs), calculation agent and CB agents in the example microgrid system for fault protection coordination under both normal and short-circuit fault conditions are analyzed and discussed. The results demonstrate that protection coordination can be correctly planned and control actions can be executed properly by the multi-agent system in the microgrid system, and the multi-agent system can isolate the fault area and protect the microgrid system in real time under varies conditions.