A Multi-Agent Approach for Protection Coordination in a Microgrid Using JADE Platform

A protection strategy utilizing agent technology for adaptive relaying of Directional Overcurrent Relays (DOCRs) has been proposed in this paper. In this approach, communication plays a vital role by providing real time information of the changing system conditions. In this study, communication channel has been simulated in Java Agent Development Framework (JADE) platform. The change in topology has an adverse impact on the protection coordination of the DOCRs and hence, the settings of DOCRs should be updated. In this study, for 9-bus test system communication channel flow has been established between different agents of the system, namely, relay agents, DG agents, equipment agents etc through Agent Communication Language (ACL) standard. Different test cases have been considered, namely, DG connection/disconnection, line outage, change in microgrid operation and relay coordination upon occurrence of fault for enhancing the protection strategy. In this study communication channel between different agents has been carried out through series of simulation on JADE platform for different contingencies in the quest to validate the sequence of events that occur upon fault inception. Hence, the DOCRs adaptively update their settings utilizing the communication channel and mitigate any maloperation of the relay. This ensures greater reliability and efficiency in mitigating the relay coordination problem.