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 novel Wide-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.