Facilitating Decision Making and Maintenance for Power Systems Operators through the Use of Agents and Distributed Embedded Systems

This article examines the improvements provided when multimedia information in traditional SCADAS are included in electric facility management and maintenance. Telecontrol use in the electric sector, with the fundamental objective of providing increased and improved service to the operators who manage these systems, is also described. One of the most important contributions is the use of an agent network that is distributed around the electric facility. Through the use of multi-agent technology and its placement in embedded systems, to the authors design a system with a degree of intelligence and independence to optimize data collection and provide reaction proposals for the operator. The proposed agent-based architecture is also reviewed in this article, as are the design of an example agent and the results obtained in a pilot experience using the proposed hardware platform. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0158-1.ch013