The Study of a Regional Decentralized Peer-to-Peer Negotiation-Based Wide-Area Backup Protection Multi-Agent System

Conventional protection relays, which use local signals to locate faults, are a poor fit to modern power grids when compared to communication-based alternatives. This article presents a novelWide-Area Backup Protection (WABP) algorithm that uses information shared across wide-area communication networks. The WABP algorithm fuses and integrates information in a regional decentralized peer-to-peer negotiation architecture for enhanced effectiveness. Line decision-making agents (LDAs), focused on line-fault detection, collect distance and directional protection information on both sides of a line. If LDAs cannot detect a fault locally, wide-area information that includes directional protection and line-fault states from neighboring lines is collected to locate the fault. The LDA considers the possible presence of relay misoperations, protection failures, and/or communication failures. Regional decision-making agents (RDAs) that reside in a regional decision-making device (RDD) in the monitoring layer of a substation can negotiate in a peer-to-peer manner without a control center. The RDA serves as the manager, coordinator, and message transponder for the LDAs. The design of the WABP is described including its architecture, workflow, and its agents' functions. Simulation scenarios illustrate the correctness of the WABP multi-agent system and the higher fault-tolerance of its response to misoperations, protection failures, and communication failures.