International Journal of Smart Grid and Clean Energy Multi-agent system based adaptive protection for dispersed generation integrated distribution systems

The increasing penetration of dispersed generation (DG) brings challenges to conventional protection approaches of distribution system, mainly due to bi-directional power flow and variable fault current contribution from different generation technology-based DG units. Moreover, the trend of allowing islanded operation of distribution systems necessitates the adoption of adaptive protection methods for distribution systems. In order to improve the reliability and selectivity of protection for such kind of distribution systems, a coordinative adaptive protection based on multiagent system (MAS) is proposed. The adaptive protection intelligently adopts suitable settings for the variation of fault current from diversified DG units. Furthermore, the structure of mobile MAS with additional flexibility is capable of adapting the changes of system topology in a short period, e.g. radial/meshed, grid-connected/islanded. The protection method is tested on a simplified distribution system model of Denmark in DIgSILENT/PowerFactory.