Multi-Agent and State Observer-Based Technique for Fault Detection of Microgrid System

Abstract

The protection of microgrids (MGs) is an emerging research issue due to integrating various levels of distributed generation (DG). Although microgrid can operate in two modes of operation: grid-connected and islanded, detecting the fault cur-rent poses a significant challenge, essentially when the microgrid operates in islanded mode. This paper presents a new approach for detecting faults in multiple protection zones utilizing a Multi-Agent System (MAS) technique and state observer. The proposed framework comprises decentralized Multi-Agents, which will communicate, interact, and exchange the data for detecting the fault through the residual current value of state observer at a given protection zone. The agents then send a trip signal to isolate/restore the faulted section. The proposed fault detection scheme has been tested and applied to an islanded microgrid configuration and demonstrated to be an effective means to detect the fault for multiple protection zones of the microgrid system.