Development a BDI-Based Intelligent Agent Architecture for Distribution Systems Restoration Planning

The configuration of a power distribution system can be altered by changing the status of switches on the feeders. When a fault occurred on a distribution system feeder, the faulted section is isolated by opening the switches adjacent to the fault. When the fault is isolated, the system is reconfigured so the outage areas due to the fault can be re-energized. In this paper, a BDI (believe-desire-intension)-based multi-agent architecture is proposed. The agents can response to the changes of the environment and take necessary conversation with other agents to reach the final goal, supplying services to all de-energized customers. These agents act independently but co-operatively. Decision tree is used in the proposed agent architecture for making restoration plan. Decision trees are built during the restoration process based on the fault location and load conditions through communications between agents. By using the decision tree, a more robust decision can be achieved by agents. Simulation results show that the proposed BDI-based agent architecture is capable of proposing adequate restoration plan as expected.