Multi-agent systems for power engineering applications - part 1 : Concepts, approaches and technical challenges

This is the first part of a 2-part paper that has arisen from the work of the IEEE Power Engineering Society's Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) Working Group. Part 1 of the paper examines the potential value of MAS technology to the power industry. In terms of contribution, it describes fundamental concepts and approaches within the field of multi-agent systems that are appropriate to power engineering applications. As well as presenting a comprehensive review of the meaningful power engineering applications for which MAS are being investigated, it also defines the technical issues which must be addressed in order to accelerate and facilitate the uptake of the technology within the power and energy sector. Part 2 of the paper explores the decisions inherent in engineering multi-agent systems for applications in the power and energy sector and offers guidance and recommendations on how MAS can be designed and implemented

Practical applications of multi-agent systems in electric power systems

The transformation of energy networks from passive to active systems requires the embedding of intelligence within the network. One suitable approach to integrating distributed intelligent systems is multi-agent systems technology, where components of functionality run as autonomous agents capable of interaction through messaging. This provides loose coupling between components that can benefit the complex systems envisioned for the smart grid. This paper reviews the key milestones of demonstrated agent systems in the power industry and considers which aspects of agent design must still be addressed for widespread application of agent technology to occur

Optimization of the operation of smart rural grids through a novel rnergy management system

The paper proposes an innovative Energy Management System (EMS) that optimizes the grid operation based on economic and technical criteria. The EMS inputs the demand and renewable generation forecasts, electricity prices and the status of the distributed storages through the network, and solves with an optimal quarter-hourly dispatch for controllable resources. The performance of the EMS is quantified through diverse proposed metrics. The analyses were based on a real rural grid from the European FP7 project Smart Rural Grid. The performance of the EMS has been evaluated through some scenarios varying the penetration of distributed generation. The obtained results demonstrate that the inclusion of the EMS from both a technical point of view and an economic perspective for the adopted grid is justified. At the technical level, the inclusion of the EMS permits us to significantly increase the power quality in weak and radial networks. At the economic level and from a certain threshold value in renewables’ penetration, the EMS reduces the energy costs for the grid participants, minimizing imports from the external grid and compensating the toll to be paid in the form of the losses incurred by including additional equipment in the network (i.e., distributed storage).Postprint (published version