by D.P. Buse, P. Sun, Q.H. Wu, and J.

Fitch

DIGITAL VISION

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IEEE power & energy magazine

MOST CURRENT POWER SYSTEM CONTROL AND automation systems are based on the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) model. A central master station, located at the control center, gathers information from a number of remote terminal units (RTUs), which are based in the substations. While the SCADA model provides acceptable performance and reliability, it has a number of drawbacks, particularly in the areas of flexibility and open access to information. Recently, several manufacturers have introduced intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) that perform various functions such as protection, control, and monitoring. Recent years have also seen the introduction of Ethernet local area networks (LANs) in substations. These are used to connect various IEDs and control systems and allow access to data from other systems, such as databases and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, and

A multiagent system on an IP network provides autonomy to each of the constituent parts of an inherently distributed power system.
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An agent is a software entity that is situated in some environment and can sense and react to changes in that environment.

from outside locations. However, the problem remains of providing a suitable framework for managing the large quantity of available information. Many vendors have developed systems based on client-server and Web technology. However, these systems are sometimes inflexible and often centralize much of the system monitoring functionality, which can lead to a requirement for high network bandwidth. Many are also one-vendor solutions, which prevent the integration of equipment from multiple sources. Agent technology is one of the most interesting recent developments in the field of distributed artificial intelligence (DAI). It has a wide range of applications, with information management, intelligent user interfaces, personal assistants, and Internet commerce among the most popular. This article defines a generic architecture that applies the multiagent systems methodology to the field of substation automation, describes the design of a system to be implemented based on this architecture, and proposes several possible applications. Compared with SCADA or client-server substation automation solutions, an agent-based system offers a number of advantages. Each function or task of the system, such as the management of a single IED, can be encapsulated within a separate agent, making the system highly modular. Agents are loosely coupled, typically communicating via messaging rather than by procedure calls (remote or local), and, using directory services, new functions can easily be added to an agent-based system by creating a new agent, which will then make its capabilities available to others. The inherently distributed power system architecture is suited ideally to a multiagent system, which provides greater autonomy to each of the constituent parts than a traditional system.

mentation, due to their small size. Belief-desire-intention (BDI) agents are based on the concept of three mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) and are capable of responding to external events and performing actions in pursuit of a goal. This flexibility makes them suitable for performing a wide range of tasks, such as real-time control, online monitoring, and alarm/event management.

System Architecture
As shown in Figure 1, the architecture consists of a number of data sources, data storage and transportation mechanisms, and data consumers. The primary source for monitoring information is the IEDs, such as protection relays, that interact with the substation plant. Information from these is gathered by control/monitoring agents over an Ethernet network. Where a component of the substation is controlled by a device that has no network interface, it is possible to gather this information from the substation control system (SCS) over a network or serial link.

Documents (in Files)

User

HMI Platform Web Browser

Agent GUI

Doc. Agent

Servlet

User Agent

Document Retrieval

Agent Technology
An agent is a software entity that is situated in some environment and can sense and react to changes in that environment. Agents are capable of operating autonomously and in a goaldirected manner. In a multiagent system, tasks are carried out by interacting agents that can cooperate with each other. The architecture described in this article is made up of several types of agents along with the external systems with which they interact, as shown in Figure 1. A more detailed description of the architecture is given later. In experimental work so far on this architecture, two types of agents have been used. Simple Java-based agents are used to perform simple tasks that do not require intelligence or, in the case of an agent that wraps an existing system, where the intelligent functionality is contained in the wrapped system. These agents are also preferred for mobile agent implemarch/april 2003 DB Agent Online Intervention

Decision Support Data Analysis Agent

Database

Control Agent

IED

SCS

Substation Plant

figure 1. Multiagent system architecture.

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DB Wide Area AP User Agent User Agent

AP

AP = Agent Platform Auth. Service = User Authentication Database Service DB = Database

DB Agent

Lookup Service

Auth. Service Services Module

Ontology Database

The WAN Mobile Agent Local Area AP AP Local Area AP AP

IED Agent IED Agent User Agent

DB Agent IED Agent

IED Agent User Agent

DB Agent

tity of data. Therefore, different types of agents may be appropriate to different tasks. Task-specific agents in the system include mobile information retrieval agents to perform document and database retrieval and mobile remote control agents to allow online intervention. The full set of agents is described in Table 1. In addition to the abilities shown, all agents are capable of communicating with other agents. All of the agents in this system are capable of communicating using the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA) Agent Communications Language (ACL) messages. This, along with the brokering and directory services provided, allows them to collaborate and make use of each others unique abilities. The use of a common ACL also permits agents that use different agent architectures to communicate with each other.

Modules
IEDs Plant HMI DB IEDs Plant

figure 2. Modular structure.

For persistent storage and logging of historical data, a substation database is required, for which purpose a commercial relational database may be used. This is managed by a database agent that provides access to other agents and collects information to be stored in the database. Each user must have access to a user agent, which acts as that users interface with the rest of the system. This agent can be standalone, integrated into a software package such as a human-machine interface (HMI), or can provide a Web-based interface via servlets, applets, or active server pages. There are a number of agents dedicated to performing various tasks, including document and database information retrieval, decision support, online intervention, and data analysis. These tasks have varying timing, network, and computing resource requirements. For example, control tasks often have strict timing requirements, while there are no such requirements on information retrieval and querying tasks other than that they should be completed as quickly as possible in order to return the results to the user. However, an information retrieval task will usually result in the transfer of a much greater quan52
IEEE power & energy magazine

A typical power transmission system consists of a number of substations, DB along with the control center and offices. These are often connected via HMI slow dial-up links with speeds of 64 to 128 kb/s. It is, therefore, necessary to minimize the amount of traffic over these links. This system attempts to do this by making each substation as autonomous as possible. The multiagent system is divided into a number of modules, each responsible for a particular location, as shown in Figure 2. There are two main types of modules. Global (or WAN) modules, containing mostly user interface and database functionality, are situated at the control center and offices. Local (LAN) modules contain functionality relevant to a particular substation, along with facilities for displaying local information and transferring it over the WAN. Having multiple modules within a substation allows either for agents providing different functions to be split into separate modules or for the provision of redundancy between modules to increase reliability. Each module consists of a number of standard components. Agent platform services, such as messaging and agent management, should be provided, based on those specified by FIPA. The messaging service allows agents to send messages to those on other platforms, while the agent management service allows a system administrator to add and remove agents. In addition to these, two broker agents, the query broker and
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Agent Type User

Database

Device

table 1. Types of agents in Tasks Abilities Intervention, Display querying, decision information, support initiate query Data transfer, Add information data acquisition, to database, querying respond to queries Control intervention Retrieval Move, determine information relevance Move

the system. Sensors GUI or other user interface

Knowledge User model

Database metadata Input from device Model of and system being controlled Locations of information Locations of devices

Information retrieval Remote control

Intervention

request broker, are included. These permit a brokered interac Knowledge about the system, including, for example, tion framework to be used in which an agent or user is able to the current status of plant: This is normally stored in request a service or submit a query and allow the broker agent databases. Human-readable documentation, including both written to manage its execution using any appropriate agents, without documents and images: This is normally stored in files requiring the originating agent to have any knowledge of those such as word processor documents. that will actually carry out the task. Most applications that do These different forms of information must be managed not use mobile agents, such as online intervention and querying, are compatible with the brokered method of interaction. If in different ways. For example, it is not possible for a comthe module is to accept mobile agents, a mobile agent server puter to understand and act upon the knowledge stored within an image, whereas database information is easily must also be included. In addition to WAN and LAN modules, a number of direc- machine-understandable. Two mechanisms, querying and tory services ensure that modules and agents are able to locate retrieval, work best with information that is machine-underand communicate with each other. The servers that provide standable and nonmachine-understandable, respectively. Querying is performed using the user agent. System these services are part of a services module, which can be considered as a specialized WAN module. These services can be linked in User Module a federation with the directory servGUI ices provided by the agent platInform Output KB = Knowledge (Expr., forms. Broker Results) The modular structure can be UA Query MT = Message implemented by adding one or two GUI Transport computers to the substation LAN Input to hold the mobile agent system, User RB = Request static agents, and database server. Broker
KB MT RB

Applications
Information Management
Within the power system, a large amount of information is generated and stored. This falls into three main categories: Large quantities of numerical data, such as fault and event records, gathered from control and protection systems: This is normally stored in files or databases.
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Inform (Expr., Results)

Query (Expr.) Failure KB MT RB

UA = User Agent Query (Expr.) CA = Control Agent KB MT RB Expr. = Query Expression

Inform (Expr., Results)

Query (Expr.) Agent

LAN Module

figure 3. Querying using query brokers.

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1. Search for the Document Template Directory Results Mobile Agent Mobile Agent Moves 2. Retrieve the Document Document Files/ Database Server Name, Template User Agent Request User

Template Mobile Wrapper Agent Document(s) Agent

ments and determines their locations. The user agent can then either retrieve these documents by sending requests to their document agents or dispatch a mobile agent, as shown in Figure 4, to travel to the location of the documents and bring them back. When the system is fully implemented, the information retrieval agent will have the ability to retrieve both documents and database data matching a specific query. The advantages of mobile agents are greatest for lowpowered client devices, which can benefit from moving the computational load onto more powerful servers, or systems with slow or intermittent network connections, which benefit from the reduction in network transmission. This has been shown in a number of previous works. For example, many National Grid substations are connected to the corporate network only by 64 kb/s dial-up links. Therefore, it is much cheaper, in terms of the amount of time taken, to transmit a mobile agent to a substation and have it perform a number of interactions locally rather than performing them over the dial-up network.

MA Moves 3. Return to User Mobile Agent Document User Agent Document User

Online Intervention
It is possible to use the multiagent system to allow a human operator to intervene remotely in the activity of an automatic control system, as shown in Figure 5. For example, the operator may wish to operate one or more circuit breakers. An intervention is initiated through the graphical interface provided by the user agent. The user agent then sends a message to the request broker, requesting that the specified action is performed. The broker matches the request with information it has regarding the capabilities of various agents and forwards it to an appropriate agent. When the action is complete, this agent must notify the request broker, which will in turn notify the user agent. If the request broker is unable to satisfy the

figure 4. Information retrieval using a mobile agent.

users input queries, for example, What is the current temperature of transformer X? (Figure 3). The user agent then creates a FIPA ACL query-ref or query-if message and transmits it to the query broker agent. User Module The broker parses the query and, GUI Inform using registration information proInput (Done (Action)) vided to it by other agents, deterUA mines which will be capable of Request answering it. The query is then for(Action) warded to these agents, who reply to the query broker. The query broker Request (Action) Inform then assembles these replies and (Done (Action)) sends them to the user agent. This Control Module query brokering mechanism is derived from that described in a 1997 Request (Action) paper by Martin et al., which was CA part of SRI Internationals Open Command to Agent Architecture project. Device Retrieval is initiated when a user Device Device inputs a set of search criteria into the user agent. Using the query broker, the user agent locates relevant docu- figure 5. Online intervention.
KB MT RB KB MT RB

KB = Knowledge Broker MT = Message Transport User RB = Request Broker UA = User Agent CA = Control Agent

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Having multiple modules within a substation allows for agents providing different functions to be split into separate modules or for redundancy between modules to increase reliability.
request, it must reply to the user agent with a failure message. As an alternative to the brokered interaction method, a sequence of interventions may be performed by a mobile agent. This provides greater efficiency when the network between the user and the substation is slow and a large number of interactions must be performed.

Biographies
D.P. Buse obtained his B.S. degree in computer science from the University of Liverpool, U.K. Currently he is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics at the University of Liverpool. His research interests include mobile agents, multiagent systems, and their industrial applications. P. Sun graduated from the Department of Electronics and Precision Machinery, Shenzhen University (SZU), P. R. China with a B.Eng. degree. From 1994 to 1998, he worked as a research engineer in the EDA R&D Centre at the Faculty of Information Technology, SZU. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool, U.K. He works as a postdoctoral research assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics. His research interests include signal and image processing, electronic design automation, and power system and industrial automation. Q.H. Wu obtained an M.S. (Eng) degree in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), China. From 1981 to 1984, he was a lecturer in electrical engineering at the university. He obtained a Ph.D. degree from The Queens University of Belfast (QUB). He worked as a postdoctoral research fellow and senior research fellow in QUB from 1987 to 1991 and lecturer and senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University, U.K., from 1991 to 1995. Since 1995, he has held the chair of Electrical Engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, The University of Liverpool, U.K., acting as the head of the Intelligence Engineering and Automation group. He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of IEE, and Senior Member of IEEE. His research interests include adaptive control, mathematical morphology, learning systems, computational intelligence, multiagent systems, and power system control and operation. J. Fitch is the substation policy application team leader within National Grid Asset Strategy, part of National Grid Transco. His team is responsible for both the technical specification and assessment of all substation HV and LV equipment, as well as providing strategic direction and application policy. With National Grid, he has worked in a number of areas, including substation control and automation and demanning and new substation build projects. His particular interests are substation automation, functional integration, and telecontrol protocols. He received a first class honors degree in electrical and electronic engineering from Surrey University and is member of the IEE. He is a U.K. utility representative on the BSI PEL57 and Cigr p&e Working Group 36-16.
IEEE power & energy magazine

Data Acquisition and Transfer

It is often necessary to acquire monitoring information from a device and store it in a database. This task can be performed using publish-subscribe interactions between the database agent and control agent. For each device for which the control agent requires information, they locate the agent responsible for that device, possibly using the directory facilitator, and send a subscribe message specifying the information required. The control agent must then notify the database agent of any new information as it becomes available, which can then be entered into the database using SQL commands. It would also be possible to perform this interaction via an information broker. In this case, the database agent sends the subscription message to the broker, which then locates the correct control agent and subscribes to the required information on behalf of the database agent. A prototype system has been constructed to evaluate these applications. Using this system, it has been possible to demonstrate, in a basic fashion, information querying using the query broker, online intervention to control an OLE for process control (OPC) based relay using several methods, including directly across the network, using a mobile agent, and using a user agent and the request broker system, and retrieval of documents and database information using mobile agents. It is now hoped to perform a more detailed analysis using an improved prototype in order to fully evaluate the performance of the system.

For Further Reading

F.F. Ingrand, M.P. Georgeff, and A.S. Rao, An architecture for real-time reasoning and system control, IEEE Expert, vol. 7 no. 6, pp. 34-44, Dec. 1992. J. Corera, I. Laresgoiti, and N.R. Jennings, Using Archon, Part 2: Electricity Transportation Management, IEEE Expert, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 71-79, 1996. FIPA Agent Management Specification, Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents, Aug. 2000 [Online]. Available: www.fipa.org/specs/fipa00023 M. Strasser and E. Schwehm, A performance model for mobile agent systems, in Proc. PDPTA97, vol. 2, 1997, pp. 1132-1140.
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