20 KV power distribution grid protection: A multi-agent architecture for decentralized operation schemes

It is commonly known, among the community of power control and protection engineers, that the procedure of fault diagnosis, fault isolation and operative restoration of the power distribution network, is a quite difficult and cost-defective task. Contemporary models in general, make use of the principles of centralized control theory and thus are subjected to the disadvantages of the centralized control methods (concerning the problem at hand), i.e. an unacceptable level of complexity and an unpredictable possibility of error due to the system´s complex structure. The authors in this paper introduce multi- agent systems, as a rapidly evolving technology, adapt them to the demands of the power distribution protection field, justify the need for distributing activities, associate the theoretical aspect of these systems with the application field in practice and discuss about the time and resources requirements of the effected project.