A Fully Decentralized Multi-Agent Fault Location and Isolation for Distribution Networks with DGs

Abstract

The modern distribution automation suggests to enable decentralized self-healing of distribution networks using advance metering and controlling infrastructure. Decentralized fault location and isolation, as an essential and vital component of self-healing, has attracted considerable attention over the years. In this paper, an integrated fault location and isolation strategy based on fully decentralized multi-agents system (FDMAS) is presented for distribution system with distributed generators (DGs) by combining the primary protection with device failure protection (i.e., backup protection). The proposed FDMAS strategy can locate and isolate electrical fault rapidly even under device failures with minimum fault clearance time and range by using expert logical rules, meanwhile can detect and identify device failure adaptively. Furthermore, a unified programming framework is developed for generalization and application of the proposed strategy. The simulation studies are carried out on 22-bus distribution system by using dynamic model test platform. The test results show that the proposed strategy has an excellent performance on fault clearance time, fault isolation range and device failure detection.