Simulating the Evolution of the Electric Power Industry with Intelligent Adaptive Agents

A model and simulation of the “Electric Enterprise” (taken in the broadest possible sense) have been developed. The model uses autonomous, adaptive agents to represent both the possible industrial components, and the corporate entities that own these components. An open access transmission application and real-time pricing has been implemented. Objectives are: 1) To develop a high-fidelity scenario-free modeling and optimization tool to use for gaining strategic insight into the operation of the deregulated power industry; 2) to show how networks of communicating and cooperating intelligent software agents can be used to adaptively manage complex distributed systems; 3) to investigate how collections of agents (agencies) can be used to buy and sell electricity and participate in the electronic marketplace; and ultimately to create self-optimizing and self-healing capabilities for the electric power grid and the interconnected critical infrastructures.