A new multiagent system (MAS) design for fault location, isolation, and restoration in power distribution systems (PDSs) is presented. When there is a fault in the PDS, MAS quickly isolates the fault and restores the service to the fault-free zones. Hierarchical coordination strategy is introduced to manage the agents, which integrate the advantages of both centralized and decentralized coordination strategies. Proposed MAS is composed of zone agents (ZAs), feeder agents (FAs), and substation agents. In this framework, ZA locate and isolate the fault based on the locally available information, and assist the FA for reconfiguration and restoration. FA can solve the restoration problem using the existing algorithms for the 0-1 knapsack problem. A novel Q-learning mechanism is also introduced to support the FA in decision making for restoration. The design is illustrated by the use of case studies of fault location, isolation, and restoration on West Virginia super circuit. The results from the case studies indicate the performance of proposed MAS design.
This paper investigates the harmonic distortion and losses in power distribution systems due to the dramatic increase of nonlinear loads. This paper tries to determine the amount of the harmonics generated by nonlinear loads in residential, commercial and office loads in distribution feeders and estimates the energy losses due to these harmonics. Norton equivalent modeling technique has been used to model the nonlinear loads. The presented harmonic Norton equivalent models of the end user appliances are accurately obtained based on the experimental data taken from the laboratory measurements. A 20 kV/400V distribution feeder is simulated to analyze the impact of nonlinear loads on feeder harmonic distortion level and losses. The model follows a “bottom-up” approach, starting from end users appliances Norton equivalent model and then modeling residential, commercial and office loads. Two new indices are introduced by the authors to quantize the effect of each nonlinear appliance on the power quality of a distribution feeder and loads are ranked based on these new defined indices. The simulation results show that harmonic distortion in distribution systems can increase power losses up to 20%.
This paper describes the design and implementation of a Multi-Agent System (MAS) that provides a distributed algorithm for fault location and isolation in power distribution systems. The designed MAS locates and isolates the fault based on locally available information. Agents are implemented using power quality meters and rugged processors which communicate with MAS through serial and TCP/IP communication links.The system is intended for studying the fault location and isolation algorithm and analyzing the communication media performance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.