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Agent-based Decentralization of Applications in Distributed Smart Grid

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Conference Paper · September 2015

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 Agent-based Decentralization of Applications
in Distributed Smart Grid Systems
Georg Kienesberger∗ , Evangelia Xypolytou∗ , Jürgen Marchgraber† , Thomas Kaufmann† , Alexander Prostejovsky§
and Mario Faschang ‡
∗ Institute of Computer Technology, Vienna University of Technology, {kienesberger,xypolytou}@ict.tuwien.ac.at
† Institute of Energy Systems and Electrical Drives, Vienna University of Technology, {kaufmann,marchgraber}@ea.tuwien.ac.at
§ Center for Electric Power and Energy, DTU Technical University of Denmark, alepros@elektro.dtu.dk
‡ AIT – Austrian Institute of Technology, mario.faschang@ait.ac.at
Abstract—Smart grid technology promises to prepare today’s
power systems for the challenges of the future by extensive inte-
gration of information and communication technology (ICT). One
key aspect is the control paradigm which will have to be shifted
from completely centralized control systems to more dezentralized
concepts in order to adapt to the distributed nature of smart
grids. Multi-agent systems (MAS) are a very promising approach
for designing distributed, decentralized systems, naturally also
in the field of smart grids. This work introduces the notion of
decentralized multi-agent-based control systems (DMACS) and
aims to give an overview on the different requirements and
challenges on the way from current centralized control systems to
DMACS. Therefore, different ICT scenarios and MAS topologies
are employed to discuss the decentralization of three exemplary
smart grid applications: voltage/var control, virtual power plants,
and dynamic islanding. As a result, the advantages and challenges
as well as ICT requirements of agent-based decentralization are
outlined.
I. I NTRODUCTION
A shift of electricity generation from several centralized big
bulk power plants towards millions of sustainable small- and
medium-size generation units is taking place in Europe and
many other regions to counteract climate change. It stands to
reason to follow the decentralization paradigm that is currently
applied to the generation layer also to the adjunct application
layer.
Appelrath et al. [1, Cha. 3.4] identify several technology
fields where agents are intended to overtake specific func-
tions in order to smoothly operate the future energy grid.
These technology fields are SCADA systems, grid automation
systems, virtual power plant applications, and autonomous
low voltage grid agents. A comprehensive analysis of the
transition of distribution grids from their classical structure to
a future, strongly decentralized one has been conducted in [2]
as the major result of the exploration project ICT4RobustGrid
which also is the basis for this work. The analysis revealed a
substantial need for system adaptations in the field of ICT and
power grid components.
After a brief clarification the used terminology, in the
following sections of this paper we will discuss current and
expected ICT scenarios and adjunct multi agent integration
stages in Section II. These definitions are the basis for a
discussion of application decentralization in distributed smart
grid systems (Section III). The paper closes with a conclusion
978-1-4799-7736-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE 271
and an outlook on the proposed multi agent implementations
in Section IV.
Agent – The term agent is used to denote different things
across the various scientific domains (e.g. automation, pharma-
cology, law enforcement), we will henceforth only consider
software-based agents. Many definitions of software agents
exist in literature as shown in [3] that also gives a formalized
definition: “An autonomous agent is a system situated within
and a part of an environment that senses that environment
and acts on it, over time, in pursuit of its own agenda and
so as to effect what it senses in the future”. Even hardware
and software combinations can be called agents. A general and
widely-accepted definition of an agent given by Russell et al.
(and in similar variations by other authors) is that “an agent
is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment
though sensors and acting upon that environment through
actuators” [4]. For the purpose of the roadmap in [2] we listed
the following four essential attributes to describe agents, as
understood in this work: (a) goal oriented, (b) reactive, (c)
communicating, and (d) autonomous. For more classifications
the interested reader is referred to [3]. Additional features of
agents could be learn-ability, mobility, self-awareness, self-
healing, self-* and many more [5].
Centralized Control System (CCS) – The typical centralized
distribution grid control system is based on a SCADA installa-
tion, which is capable of supervision, control and data acquisi-
tion from one central point in the grid (e.g. the utility’s control
center). Sensors and actuators typically are directly connected
to this centralized system where also all sensor readings are
processed and commands may be issued. Thus, a CCS hosts
all the computational intelligence and processing power at one
point where usually also the system’s communication host is
located.
Decentralized Multi-Agent-based Control Systems
(DMACS) – A distributed topology is the opposite approach to
centralized systems. The intelligence is completely outsourced
from the substation into the field level where computational
potent agents run complex negotiation algorithms in order
to achieve the desired global behaviour. The function of the
Distribution Management System (DMS) agent is reduced
to collecting and processing the data acquired from the
device agents. This approach follows the MAS’ original
idea of distributed decision making and offers, in principle,
the best scalability and redundancy. However, it also comes
with a number of disadvantages, most notably a possibly
non-deterministic decision making process.
II. D EFINITION OF S CENARIOS
ICT has a significant role in smart grids. It enables the
interconnection of the grid’s distributed elements – e.g. pho-
tovoltaic generators, transformers, storages etc. – and the grid
operators. A reliable, real-time communication is essential for
the successful data exchange and management of the whole
system. As the number of the distributed elements to be in-
terconnected increases, so does the size of the communication
network and its complexity. Key factor for the realization of
decentralized smart grid applications is the use of appropriate
ICT technologies for the various network sizes and complexity,
which ensures in every case sufficient communication quality
and data rate as well as safety and security. Since the existing
ICT infrastructure was not designed or intended for utilization
in such applications with such amount and frequency of data
to be exchanged, not all of the technologies prove appropriate;
rising technologies with enhanced characteristics are therefore
considered and the need of development of new technologies
and protocols is emerging.
A. ICT Phases
In order to give an overview of the ICT in relevance
to smart grid applications, it is considered as thoughtful to
distinguish between existing ICT and its utilization in current
grid applications, enhanced ICT, which may not be yet uti-
lized directly in smart grid applications though examined and
analyzed in scientific research projects, and future, emerging
ICT, suitable for agent-based smart grid applications.
1) Current ICT State: Power Line Carrier (PLC) tech-
nology has low data rates and noisy environment, which
may cause signal distortion and attenuation, but on the other
hand easy and low cost deployment and extensive coverage.
Applications that do not require high data rates, such as
automation in the Medium Voltage (MV) grids and substations
[6], Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) [7], detection
and prevention of islanding [8] as well as Vehicle-to-Grid
applications (V2G) [9], have been already successfully utiliz-
ing PLC technology for data exchange. Coaxial technologies,
which are standardized by the Data Over Cable Service Inter-
face Specification (DOCSIS), have a very good Signal to Noise
Ratio (SNR), high capacity and are mostly used in Neigh-
borhood Area Networks (NAN) applications [10]. Fiber Optic
communications have wide coverage and ultra high bandwidth
– in comparison to the copper-based communications – and
robustness against electromagnetic and radio interference [10],
[11]. They are used in Wide and Metropolitan Area Network
(WAN, MAN) applications, they support IP-based infrastruc-
ture, efficient routing and failure restoration. Large scale Dig-
ital Subscriber Lines (DSL) communication infrastructure is
already established and used in numerous applications, mostly
in Home Area Networks (HAN) as well as for AMI, with
sufficient data rate (ADSL2+, VDSL2) but considerable signal
attenuation for long distances [12]. Cellular technologies have
also been deployed for grid applications; Global System for
Mobile communications (GSM) and General Packet Radio
Services (GPRS) have data rates of the magnitude of hundreds
kbps, they are considered mostly as secure communications
272
and they allow IP-based network applications. They are in
most of the cases used for remote monitoring purposes, e.g.
substations, power quality monitoring, home monitoring, load
control and AMI applications [13]. Ethernet communication
technology is used in HAN and WAN applications, with
coverage up to tens of kilometers and high data rates (Gigabit
Ethernet), and provides great reliability, scalability and Quality
of Service (QoS) [14].
2) ICT2 – Extended-State Research Projects: Whereas
wireline and some wireless technologies have been already
utilized in grid applications, new wireless technologies gain
increasingly importance in smart grid applications, since they
are easy to embed, they have low installation costs and high
flexibility. Worldwide interoperability for Microwave Access
(WiMAX) technology is used in Wireless Metropolitan Area
Network (WMAN) applications. Operating also on higher
frequencies than on the congested 2.4 GHz frequency band,
it achieves low interference, high data rates and wide cover-
age, since it uses mesh protocols. Wireless Automatic Meter
Reading, real-time pricing, outage detection and restoration,
are smart grid applications where WiMax can be successfully
utilized [13], [15], [16]. Wireless Personal Area Networks
(WPAN) (ZigBee, Bluetooth) are usually appropriate for short
communication distances (some tens of meters), they are easy
to deploy and have low maintenance needs. On the other hand
they cannot achieve high data rates [10], [12], [14], [16]. They
are used in smart metering projects [15] and are generally
popular in home automation applications [13], monitoring and
control of substations [17] as well as load monitoring [18].
Wireless local networks (WLAN) or WiFi is a technology
that is mostly used in HAN networks with a coverage of
hundreds of meters and a data rate of hundreds Mbps. While
cheap equipment and flexibility are some of its advantages,
high interference and high power consumption are two major
disadvantages. However it supports all IP-based protocols,
point-to-point and point-to-multi point communications, which
makes it suitable for multi-agent-based smart grid applications
[12]–[14]. AMI, HAN and V2G employ WiFi technology, as
presented in [12], [13] and [19].
3) ICT3 – High performance communications: In multi-
agent-based decentralized smart grid applications, numerous
entities shall be interconnected through the communication
infrastructure, increasing therefore the size, the requirements
and the complexity of the communication network. Depending
on the extent of the application and therefore the size of the
communication network, three types of ICT are distinguished
for the DMACS area; emergency wireline technologies, wire-
less and wireline technologies for home and neighborhood area
networks and wireline technologies for wide area networks.
Emergency wireline technologies: Not only in normal operation
of the grid but also in emergency situations, grid operators need
to have access to the communication network. Especially in
emergency situations, it is likely that the public communication
infrastructure cannot offer the required quality of service or
even collapses, due to the massive communication traffic
congestion. This is why PLC seems to be the most suitable
communication technology attributed to this category [20].
Customer premises networks (HAN) wireless technologies such
as, cellular, ZWAVE, WPAN, WiFi, WiMax, and also wireline
technologies such as DSL, coaxial, optical communications
(e.g. SONET) and also Ethernet, are appropriate. The latter
 = IEC 61968 Trans.
Wires
Dist.
Wires • ACL messages describe desired states or actions in a
compliant interface Model DAC Model DAC VRU
declarative language, rather than a mere procedure or
Metering Planning Energy Outage Distribution Customer
method.
Metering
System Planning
Systems Energy
Management Outage
Management Distribution
Automation Customer
Info. System
System Systems Management Management Automation Info. System
Interface Adapter Interface Adapter Interface Adapter
The Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA [26])
is a non-profit organization with the purpose of promoting
IEC
IEC61968
61968CompliantMiddlewareServices
CompliantMiddlewareServices … agent-based applications, services and equipment. FIPA’s pub-
licly available specifications are de-facto standards for MAS
Event Human Data Work Geographic interoperability and focus on specifying protocols for external
Event Human Data Work Geographic Financial
History Resource Warehouse Management Information Financial interaction and platform services.
History Resource Warehouse Management Information

1) Centralized: Centralized topologies of control systems

Fig. 1. Example utility implementation of IEC 61968. Source: [23].
for electric power distribution grids are perhaps the most
common due to the history in the development of automation
wireline technologies are feasible also for WAN applications, technology. Current DMS and Energy Management Systems
thanks to the high data rates, high reliability and wide cover- (EMS) as presented in previous sections emerged from mono-
age. lithic software packages that were developed and extended over
In conclusion, wireline technologies, especially those with high decades. Despite the efforts to modularize these systems, all
capacity, play an important role in grid applications. However the intelligence is still located in one single control center and
it is likely that some of them will be replaced by wireless the disadvantages of centralized systems (e.g. bad scalability,
technologies, since the latter are more flexible and easier to redundancy and single-points-of-failure) are inherently present.
deploy. However, this topology offers easy maintainability of the soft-
ware along with easy implementation of control functionality.
B. MAS-Stages A MAS using centralized topology is shown in Figure 2 (a).
The DMS agent is covering the whole DMS suite as described
MAS allow virtually unlimited different ways of topologi- earlier, whereas the Device Agents act merely as interfaces to
cal layouts, which can be divided into three general schemes the actual Intelligent Electronic Devices (IEDs). There is no
that are covered in this section. The one common property interaction between the agents in the field level as they only
for these schemes is that they must integrate into the utility’s communicate with the DMS Agent.
control framework. This framework is commonly a middleware
based on the IEC 61968 as defined by the International Energy 2) Distributed: A distributed topology as shown in
Commission (IEC) in the “IEC Smart Grid Standardization Figure 2 (b) takes the opposite approach to centralized sys-
Roadmap” given in [21], [22]. The applicable topologies have tems. The intelligence is completely outsourced from the
to respect the grid segments covered by distribution system substation into the field level where computationally potent
operators (DSO) and aggregators, as well as the interfaces to agents run complex negotiation algorithms in order to achieve
the utility’s IEC 61968 middleware. the desired global behavior. The function of the DMS Agent
The IEC 61968 is a series of standards dealing with inter- is reduced to collecting and processing the data acquired from
application integration of utility enterprises that need to con- the Device Agents. This approach follows the MAS’ original
nect disparate applications in dissimilar runtime environments idea of distributed decision making and offers, in principle,
[23]. Loosely-coupled applications with heterogeneity in lan- the best scalability and redundancy. However, it also comes
guages, operating systems, protocols and management tools, with a number of disadvantages, most notably the possibly
that exchange data on an event-driven basis, are targeted by non-deterministic decision making process.
the series. The IEC 61986 defines a DMS as a set of various 3) Cell division: A MAS based on a cell division is given
distributed application components for the utility to manage in Figure 2 (c). Here, the Device Agents are controlled in a
electric distribution networks. Its capabilities are monitoring centralized manner by the Zone Agents. The tasks of the Zone
and control of equipment, management processes for system Agents depends on whether they are controlled themselves by
reliability, voltage management, demand-side management, the DMS Agent or perform negotiations among each other. Ei-
outage management, work management, automated mapping, ther way, scalability and redundancy are improved compared to
and facilities management. A typical example of a utility the centralized approach, while the implementation complexity
configuration is given in Figure 1 on page 3. As summarized of the control algorithms is reduced.
by Nareshkumar in [24], the communication protocol must
be universally shared between all agents (i.e. “they have to
III. A PPLICATIONS
speak the same language”), it should be concise (avoiding
ambiguities) and has only a limited number of communicative
acts (they are finished with a finite time horizon).
The main advantages of Agent Communication Languages The transformation of conventional electrical grids towards
(ACLs) compared to other means of information and knowl- smart grids is linked with a countless number of evolving
edge information exchange, such as Remote Method Invo- applications, which are either necessary to perform this trans-
cation (RMI) and Remote Procedure Calls (RPC), are the formation, or yield new possibilities like for example improved
following according to Labrou et al. [25]: efficiency, optimized generation scheduling or strengthend
local reliability. In this paper three exemplary applications
• ACLs incorporate semantics such as propositions, are selected, which will be stepwise required to fullfill the
rules, and actions. transformation towards smart grids. In a first step the voltage

273
 IEC 61698 Middleware
compliant
IEC 61698
DMS
Agent
Inter-agent communicaton
Device Device
Agent Agent
comm.
Device
IED IED IED
(a)
Fig. 2. MAS topologies: centralised (a), distributed (b), cell division (c).
problems due to integration of generation units in low voltage
grids are identified as the most urgent problem that has to
be solved by Voltage/VAR control and optimization [27]. This
application is currently object of many research projects and
is likely to be state of the art any time soon. A continuing
integration of renewable generation in the future will also
lead to a reorganization of generation composition as a next
step. The traditional generation structure of base-, middle-
and peakload-power plants will be distorted due to massive
amounts of distributed power generation. At some times even
baseload-power plants have to be temporarily switched off
to be able to use the full amount of renewable energy. As
a consequence, a lack of regulation energy is revealed in
these situations. The concept of virtual power plants is an
idea to overcome these problems. At a stage of expansion
where distributed generation is dominating the generation
composition it is likely that reliability problems occur, because
of the just mentioned lack of regulation energy. In contrary to
the situation nowaydays, blackouts could happen more often.
The huge amounts of distribution generation units in the near
future involves the potential of building emergency clusters
for local backup supply – in case of blackouts – in form
of Microgrids. The dynamic islanding concept is one way to
implement this idea.
A. Voltage/VAR control and optimization (VVC)
Voltage and var control concerns devices which are used
in order to regulate the voltage level and maintain it within
acceptable limits and devices used to compensate the reactive
power. Voltage problems mainly occur in rural power networks
due to higher line lengths, which connect the substation with
the feed in nodes within the network. Typical voltage regula-
tion devices are on load tap changers (OLTC) on the substation
transformers or reactive power control strategies (Q = f (U ),
cos(ϕ) = f (P ), etc.), which are usually implemented in
inverters of decentralized generators. Devices that regulate the
reactive power consist of switchable capacitor banks. Due
to the high penetration of renewable energy sources, this
application has to include the regulation of active and reactive
power.
In [28] several control strategies to maintain voltage levels
are compared. In this study the use of VVC strategies doubles
IEC 61698 Middleware IEC 61698 Middleware
DSO level
DMS DMS
Interface Interface
Agent Agent
Cell level
Cell Cell
Agent Agent
Field level
Device Device Device Device Device Device Device
Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent Agent
IED IED IED IED IED IED
(b) (c)
the installable PV capacity within the investigated power grid.
First implementations of voltage and var control strategies
with a centralized communication approach for transformers
and inverters within a medium voltage power grid in a model
region were realized by [29]. In [30] control strategies split
into five stages with a centralized communication approach
for low voltage power grids are introduced.
For this application a centralized MAS topology (cf. Sec-
tion II-B1) is sufficient to achieve a basic solution, which can
be deferred from the control architecture in [30] or [29]. Al-
though the communicating entities used in these projects do not
fully qualify as agents according to the definition given in this
work, this could be easily achieved. Furthermore, the required
agent communication for achieving equal functionality using a
centralized MAS approach would not exceed the possibilities
of the current ICT state (cf. Section II-A1).
However, more decentralized MAS approaches could allow
for control algorithms with an even higher flexibility and
therefore lead to more overall efficiency. Furthermore, the
role of the DMS agent as a single point of failure would be
weakened. However, the ICT requirements would also increase
and the MAS design needs to be failsafe enough to satisfy
the high requirements on reliability, availability and safety of
this smart grid application. Hence, as outlined in [2], further
research in this area is necessary on the way to DMACS.
B. Virtual Power Plant (VPP)
The increasing number of distributed power generation and
their associated unpredictability of power infeed, paired with
a trend to a decreased number of centralized power stations,
leads to a demand of new concepts to guarantee the necessary
power-frequency-regulation in electrical grids. Nowadays fre-
quency stabilization is based on the huge amount of flywheel
masses in the generators of big centralized power stations.
A deactivation of these power stations, mostly caused by
economic reasons, harbours risks of a lack of power regulation
reserves in the future. With keeping this thought in mind, the
basic idea is not only decentralizing power generation but
also ancillary grid services like power-frequency-regulation.
Virtual power plants enable the possibility of connecting large
numbers of small, decentralized energy resources and/or loads
274
to a single aggregated entity. A detailed specification of VPPs
can be found in [31]. It is difficult for the owners of small
energy resources to contribute to the control energy market,
because certain minimum power limits are necessary to do
this. For example ±2MW for primary control in Austria [32].
In addition each participant of the control energy market has to
provide an online status information regarding frequency and
operating points for monitoring. To appear as a single entity is
a possibility to overcome the problems of a massive overhead
if large amounts of single energy resources participate at the
control energy market.
Basically there are two concepts of VPPs, described e.g.
in [33]. The first one is named technical VPP (TVPP) and
comprises the ancillary grid services just mentioned above.
The second one follows an economic-focused approach, named
commerical VPP (CVPP) and is described as follows. To
increase rentability for each owner it is possible to appear
as a single participant on the energy market with the ag-
gregated energy of the whole cluster of resources. In the
future, customer energy management systems (CEMS) will
help third parties or distributed customers to provide electric
flexibility back to the grid in a comprehensive way, allowing
for resulting new markets and applications in this domain. The
major challenge to implement VPP concepts is to overcome
communication issues. Therefore in [34] it is mentioned that
“unpredictability needs an adaptive real-time negotiation”.
In an impressive way it is simulated how massive amounts
of decentralized generation units are able to negotiate their
operating points – based on MAS – in such short time
intervals, that even primary control could be achieved by VPP.
Beside the simulation approach, there are also investigations
regarding MAS and VPP which are demonstrated in praxis.
For example [35] accredits MAS systems providing better,
but not always optimal solutions compared to centralized
systems. An examined pilot Virtual Power Plant allowed a
real investigation of the behaviour of the MAS system. As
one benefit of MAS systems in the VPP concept is mentioned
the idea of taking the final decision for each element locally,
which is more easily accepted by installation owners. In [31]
it is described that the VPP concept tackles the challenges
of excessive investments due to the necessary expansion of
network capacity, which is also increasing by the growth
of distributed generation. A three-stage process is suggested
to integrate the VPP concept in the electric grid. In a first
stage a VPP operator has to overcome all technical, regulatory
and socioeconomical challenges, while the second approaches
enhancement of technical possibilities and the third stage leads
to sophisticated VPPs with the ability to offer ancillary, system
and power quality services. It is also possible to combine the
economic operation of decentralized energy generation with a
overlayed control concept of prize-driven frequency control, as
[33] introduces. Because prizes are based on a 15 minute basis
the VPP can only participate in secondary frequency control.
Another aspect is that VPPs or their participants might
have to communicate with a flexibility operator as proposed
for example in [36]. This flexibility operator is itself in need to
negotiate with numerous single entities – in contrast to VPPs
situated in the same grid segment – and therefore a combined
MAS-based approach is hereby proposed as a viable research
goal.
275
In general, VPP applications require more sophisticated,
decentralized MAS architectures as they are needed for the
basic VCC applications discussed earlier, which also affects
the ICT requirements. In the transition roadmap from CCS
to DMACS [2] the starting point for these MAS-based VPPs
is therefore mapped leaning towards the DMACS side. This
implies that the second or third ICT phase discussed in Section
II-A would be required and a strongly decentralised MAS
architecture is recommended. However, although availability,
reliability, and safety also need to be addressed in this field of
application, the involved risks for grid stability are not as high
as in the VCC example (under the assumption that they have
to be averted on lower smart grid levels anyway).
C. Dynamic islanding
The reliability of the Austrian power grid can be rated
as very good. One coefficient representing the reliability of
the Austrian power grid is the customer-weighted outage time
(SAIDI), with a share of unplanned outages of 33 minutes per
year [37]. Therefore today’s outages are too rare and too short
to sensibilize the society and thus to yield investments for
this issue. Assuming an ongoing trend of growing numbers
of decentralized generation units it is likely that reliability
decreases. If the power regulation issues in a future grid
scenario with a critical penetration of decentralized, unflexible
energy resources can not be solved (e.g. through VPP), it
would be necessary to have backup concepts to be capable
of supplying at least parts of the grid in case of blackouts.
Dynamic islanding represents one of these backup concepts to
supply the grid “bottom-up style” in the form of Microgrids.
In [38] Microgrids are defined as “LV distribution systems
with distributed energy resources (microturbinesm fuel cells,
PV, etc) together with storage devies (flywheels, energy ca-
pacitors and batteries) and flexible loads.”. Microgrids can
dynamically switch between grid-connected and islanded mode
and can operate autonomously in these modes. Dependent on
whether a transition to island mode is fullfilled intentionally
or unintentionally the practical effect is different. In the first
case, a Microgrid can independently optimize its own power
production and consumption under the consideration of system
economics such as buy or sell decisions. In the second case the
Microgrid builds the local backup supply in case of blackouts
of the superior grid. Regarding dynamic islanding the system
is capable of balancing generation and load and can keep
system voltage and frequency in defined limits with adequate
controls. The implementation of this feature is possible with
MAS-based intelligent local controllers for generators, battery
systems, and load management units in a decentralized and
autonomous infrastructure.
There are many research projects in the field of Microgrids.
The two EU projects Microgrids and MoreMicrogrids showed
the potential of the topic in an impressive way and also led
to a book [38] describing the Microgrid concept and current
state of the art in detail also towards MAS concepts. In
another book [39] the ongoing Microgrid research focused
on centralized control in Microgrids is addressed. The most
challenging issues regarding implementation of Microgrids can
be summarized as protection, control, management systems
(including the competitive approaches of CCS vs. MAS) or
market models.
 A strong argument for MAS-based approaches to the
implementation of Microgrids is the fact that the control is
situated locally and is neither dependent on distant control sys-
tems nor communication with them. A Microgrid that switches
to islanding mode unintentionally, should be as independent
from the state of external (communication) systems as possible
to ensure proper operation within. Hence, in this case the
centralized MAS topology is not as feasible as the other two
presented in Section II-B, since the whole Microgrid depends
on the proper operation of the DMS agent.
In the case of intentional islanding for reasons of system
economics, the cell division topology shown in Figure 2 (c)
would be an efficient approach to manage a grid of Microgrids,
where each Microgrid constitutes one cell.
Either way, the stability of the Microgrid depends on the
reliability, availability and performance of the MAS, which
constitutes an enourmous challenge. For instance, the power
supply for the required ICT components has to be secured
or the overall system design has to be able to cope with
partial communication loss. Note that the system parts affected
from power loss and those from communication loss do not
need to be congruent. This leads to the conclusion that a
comprehensive ICT infrastructure is needed as described in
the third ICT scenario (see Section II-A3).
IV. C ONCLUSION AND O UTLOOK
Smart Grids enable various novel grid applications that
incorporate numerous new, distributed entities, which have to
be modeled in control concepts that range from completely
centralized ones to the DMACS introduced in this work.
However, depending on the applications’ functionality there
are different requirements and challenges when MAS-based
architectures are employed.
In this work we discussed the smart grid applications’
decentralization with MAS using VCC, VPP and dynamic
islanding as examples. We could argue that VCC definitely
has the lowest requirements regarding complexity of the MAS
topology and the ICT infrastructure, although more compre-
hensive MAS-based architectures could be feasible. Dynamic
islanding turned out to have the most demanding requirements
for the ICT infrastructure, since availability, reliability, and
safety play an important role, but the MAS has to be rather
complex to accomplish the manifold necessary tasks. Finally,
VPPs will definitely have the need for the most comprehensive
MAS architectures, but can be implemented using all but the
lowest ICT scenario.
As a general conclusion it can be said that the challenges
and implications of MAS-based concepts for the decentraliza-
tion of smart grid applications are extremely dependent on
the application at hand. Further research will be necessary
concerning the methodology of the control concept transition
from CCS to DMACS itself and also as far as the MAS-based
architectural approaches for various smart grid applications in
general are concerned.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The project ICT4RobustGrid was funded by the Austrian
Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology under FFG
project number 840252.
276
Mr. Prostejovsky conducted the major part of his contribu-
tion in his previous affiliation with the Automation & Control
Institute, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria.
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