A Decentralized Multi-Agent Approach for Service Restoration in Uncertain Environment

This paper proposes a decentralized multiagent system (MAS) approach to solve the service restoration problem considering the uncertainty of load demand and renewable distributed generators (RDGs). Service restoration is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem and solved by implementing controlled DG islanding using the proposed MAS approach. First, the uncertainty of load demand and RDG generation is forecast by generating scenarios using Monte Carlo simulations. Next, the expected nodes to be restored in an island are determined using a heuristic rule-based technique. Finally, the maximum likelihood of the expected island ranges to be restored are estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation method to assist the utility in decision making. Extensive case studies are conducted on 38 bus and 119 bus distribution system to show the efficacy of the proposed restoration strategy. The use of electric vehicles and battery energy storage as flexible sources of energy to alleviate the uncertainties in the system is also highlighted.