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Multi Agent System based Fault Location and
Isolation in a Smart Microgrid System
Seetaram Alwala, Student Member, IEEE, Ali Feliachi, Senior Member, IEEE, M. A. Choudhry,
Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract-- In this paper, a Multi Agent System (MAS) based
on sequence current magnitudes and current direction is
proposed for fault location and isolation in a smart microgrid
system. Each of the fault types has a different impact on the
sequence current components, which along with the direction of
the current during a fault can be used for fault location. The
microgrid has been implemented by adding Distributed
Generation at various locations of the 37-bus IEEE benchmark
system and its fault simulation has been done in OpenDss which
is an open source distribution system simulation software.
Index Terms— Fault Location and Isolation, Micro grid,
Multi Agent technology, OpenDss
I. INTRODUCTION
Microgrid can be defined as a low to medium voltage
network that contains aggregation of certain loads and
distribution generation units, which is connected to the main
grid system through a point of common coupling. It can
operate in either grid-connected or islanded mode. In grid
mode it remains connected to the main grid and is seen as a
single aggregate load or source, while in the islanded mode it
separates from the main grid, due to a major disturbance,
becoming self sustained and continues to serve certain loads
[1]. One of the most common protection methods used for the
radial distribution system is to have a recloser near the
substation. Recloser opens and closes several times to check
for faults on the system and in case the fault does not clear
after these attempts, it locks out. In the case of a permanent
fault within a microgrid in a radial system with recloser
protection, the recloser locks out and isolates the microgrid. In
order to re-connect the microgrid back into the system, the
fault has to be located and isolated. The factors that have to be
considered during a fault in a microgrid are the bidirectional
power flow and reduced fault current level in the system. It is
these factors that make the fault location in a microgrid a
complicated problem.
There has been a lot of work done with respect to
implementation of fault location in systems with distributed
generation using Multiagent system. In [3] authors propose an
agent based fault location algorithm for a Smart distribution
system. The agents are located at various node locations and
have the local feeder information. When fault occurs,
depending upon the direction and amplitude of the transient
The authors are with the Lane Department of Computer Science & Electrical exchanged between two agents. The behavior of a multi-agent
Engineering, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6109.
978-1-4577-2159-5/12/$31.00 ©2011 IEEE
reactive power flow, the fault location is identified. But this
algorithm is limited to single line to ground faults only. Based
on the fact that the line with the same direction of fault
harmonic energy flow in its two terminals is the faulted line,
the proposed multi-agent based protection scheme is
developed with current differential relays [4]. Relays as agents
cooperate to locate fault section and shed loads if necessary. A
multi agent system based on current magnitude and direction
to identify faults in a looped distribution system is proposed in
[5]. The simple concept used in this paper is that during a fault
all the generation units must feed the fault. This agent system
is applicable only to identify zones but not the exact fault
location.
Microgrid protection based on sequence current magnitudes
for different kinds of faults has been proposed, since fault
currents in the islanded microgrid might not be sufficient for
tripping the traditional relays [6]. This work combines the
concepts in [5-6] and proposes a Multi Agent System for the
fault location and isolation in a microgrid based on the
sequence current magnitudes and current direction during a
fault. Three types of agents constitute the proposed multi
agent system (MAS) architecture, which are the Recloser
Agent, the Zone Agents and the Switch Agents. The Recloser
Agent is the agent near the recloser of the substation in a
radial feeder, which informs the status of the recloser to the
Zone Agents. To each of these zones a zone agent and switch
agent is allocated. The purpose of the zone agent is to receive
the status of the recloser from Recloser agent and inform the
switch agent after it receives recloser lockout information
from the recloser agent. The algorithm for the fault location
and isolation is embedded in the switch agent.
II. AGENT TECHNOLOGY
An agent is a computer system or hardware entity that is
capable of autonomous action based on sensing in its
environment to meet its design objectives. Autonomy means
that the components in an environment function are under
their own control. Agents operate and exist in both
computational and physical environment. The environment
provides a computational infrastructure for such interactions
to take place. The infrastructure includes both communication
protocol and interaction protocols.
Communication protocol enables agents to exchange and
understand messages. A communication protocol might
specify that messages for a particular course of action to be
depends not just on its component agents, but also on how
they interact. In a multi-agent system of sufficient complexity,

each agent would not only need to be able to do the tasks that
arise locally, but would also need to interact effectively with
other agents. The communication protocols can be regarded as
the specification of these interactions. Protocols are a nice
way of enforcing modularity in the design of a multi-agent
system. They help in separating the interface between agents
from their internal design.
III. MULTI AGENT FAULT LOCATION ARCHITECTURE
A. Multi Agent System Architecture
The proposed MAS architecture is illustrated in Figure 1.
According to the architecture, there are mainly two categories
of agents available. They are Global Agent and Zonal Agents.
Recloser agent (RA) is a Global agent that keeps track of the
status of the Recloser at the substation and informs the Zone
Agents in various zones when the recloser locks out. The
Zone Agent (ZA) and Switch Agent (SW) fall into the
category of Zonal agents. These agents are responsible for
managing each zone in the power distribution system
considered in figure 3 Each Zone agent has one associated
Switch Agent in that zone. When a permanent fault occurs in
the system, the recloser tries multiple times and locks out, up
on which the recloser agent informs the zone agents in each
zone about the lock out. Then the zone agent informs its
corresponding SwitchAgent to check for faulty condition in
any of the lines in its zone and implement fault location
algorithm described in section III E. The Zonal agents will
have local information like power flow and sequence current
magnitude and phase angle of all the distribution lines in their
respective zones. In view of the real world deployment of
these agents, information regarding sequence current
magnitudes and phase angels can be obtained from the real
world protective relays described in [7-9]. Zonal agents
implement fault location in a decentralized manner up on
receiving recloser lock out signal from recloser agent. So, the
proposed MAS architecture is a decentralized MAS
architecture.
Fig. 1. Multi-Agent Architecture
B. RecloserAgent (RA)
This agent keeps track of the status of the Recloser at the
substation and informs the Zone agents in various zones when
the recloser locks out. After the lock out, the tripping off
action of the recloser has been implemented by opening the
substation transformer in test system. So, the Recloser agent
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sees negligible current in all phases of opened substation
transformer and informs the zonal agents about the lock out.
C. ZoneAgent (ZA)
These agents inform their corresponding Switch Agents about
the recloser lock out and ask them to check for faulty
condition and implement the fault location algorithm.
D. SwitchAgent (SW)
This agent is the most important entity in this agent
architecture since it implements the fault location and isolation
after receiving information about recloser lock out from its
corresponding zone agent. This agent has information of the
power flows, sequence current magnitudes and phase angle of
all the lines in its zone. The values of symmetrical current
components are obtained directly from the simulation of the
test system in OpenDSS software. To comply with values
measured by the real-world protective relays [7-9] values of
all symmetrical components are multiplied by a factor of 3.
The fault location algorithm embedded in the switch agent is
described in the next section.
E. Fault Location Algorithm
One of the most important aspects of the fault location
algorithm is identifying fault type based on the sequence
current values. For identifying single line to ground fault, 3-
phase to ground fault and line to line faults the residual
current (Ir), positive sequence current (I1) and negative
sequence current (I2) magnitudes respectively are used. The
residual current is the sum of positive, negative and zero
sequence currents. The reason for using sequence current
magnitudes for fault detection is due to the fact that when a
fault occurs depending on its type the corresponding sequence
current magnitudes are high in the affected lines and these
values will be substantial even for faults in an islanded
Microgrid. Thus the sequence current magnitudes give a
rough estimate of where the fault exists.
Residual currents are used for identifying single line to ground
faults, while Positive sequence current for three phase to
ground fault and negative sequence for line to line faults. The
thresholds (Irth, I1th, and I2th) are set for these Sequence
currents and all the lines violating the limit are suspected of
having a fault in them. So, the switch agent first checks all the
lines that exceed threshold and checks for conditions for
current reversal or negligible residual current magnitude in all
the lines that are connected to the violating line. Basic reason
for checking for current reversal is because of the two way
power flow and due to simple fact that when fault occurs in a
system then all the generation units will feed this fault. So,
when a fault occurs in a node between two lines such that on
either side of that node a generation unit exists which will
have to feed the fault and thus, the adjoining lines of the node
will have current flowing in opposite direction. So, the fault
can be located based on current reversal. The current direction
for a single line to ground is determined by looking at the
change in the phase angles of zero sequence currents of the
lines and for a fault located between two lines these angles
magnitudes will have to be of opposite sign. In the case of a 3-
phase and line to line faults the current direction can be
determined from the values of real power. For a 3 phase fault

the real power values will be of opposite signs in all the 3
phases while for a line to line fault this would be the case in
the two faulted phases in the lines attached to the faulty node.
In case, the current reversal is not seen then the condition for
negligible residual current is considered for faults in terminal
nodes/lines where there is no two way power flow. It has been
observed from simulation that in these terminal lines the
residual currents become negligible during a fault and this is
being used for fault identification.
The flow chart for fault location is provided in Figure 2.
Yes
Fig. 2. Fault Location Flow Chart
IV. SIMULATION RESULT
The Microgrid simulation was implemented in OpenDSS
software. To achieve the Microgrid, the standard IEEE 37 bus
system was modified by adding distribution generation units
at various nodes in the circuit. The Distribution generation
unit considered here is solar. The default model of the solar
generation available in OpenDSS has been used in the
simulation. The Modified IEEE37 bus system is divided into
three zones such that the distributed generation in that zone
can supply the load in that zone. Zone1 has 15 distribution
lines (L1-L15), 9 loads demanding 716 KW and 344 KVar
and 3 Solar Distribution generation units each with capacity of
230KW at 0.9 power factor, Zone 2 has 10 distribution lines
(L16-L25), 8 loads demanding 549 KW and 267 KVar and 2
Distribution generation units of solar with capacity of 275KW
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at 0.9 power factor while zone 3 has 9 distribution lines (L26-
L34), 7 loads demanding 567 KW and 275 KVar and 2
Distribution generation units of solar with capacity of 281KW
at 0.9 power factor .The modified IEEE37 bus system is
shown in Figure 3.
When a fault occurs the substation transformer is opened to
mimic the recloser action and then MAS locates and isolates
the fault up on which autonomous islands of Microgrid are
formed. The power flow results along with values of
sequence currents of all the lines along their phase angles at
the instant after opening substation transformer are written to
a excel file in csv format. The switch agent up on receiving
recloser lock out signal from its zone agent, based on the
values in these files determines the fault location as per the
algorithm described in flow chart previously
The power flow results of OpenDss were verified using
Distributed Engineering Workstation (DEW).
PCC
Fig. 3. Modified IEEE37 bus Test System
A. Single line to ground Fault in node 707:
An single line to ground fault is simulated in OpenDss, then
the power flow results along with values of sequence currents
of all the lines along their phase angles at the instant after
opening substation transformer are written to a excel file in
.csv format. The Recloser agent informs of its locking out
action all the zonal agents ZA1, ZA2 &ZA3 which in turn
pass the message to their corresponding switch agent in that
Zone. Then, each of these agents starts reading the sequence
current magnitudes of the lines in their zone. Up on reading
these values since the faulted node is present in Zone1 SW1
observes that threshold for the residual current is violated by
the lines L6 and L9.Then it checks the L6 and L9 for any
current reversal or if residual current magnitude is negligible.
The current reversal is determined by looking at the phase
angle of the zero sequence current (Io) for neighboring lines
which will opposite if the fault exists between them and both
the lines are fed by a DG unit. For L6 and L9 there is no
reversal or negligible residual hence switch agent checks for
L9 and observes a current reversal between L9 and L11 and

confirms that that the fault exists between theses line at node
707.
B. Single line to ground Fault in node 705:
This is a fault in Zone 1 so SW1 upon reading residual current
values see’s that L4 and L2 violate the threshold limit. Then
the agent looks for either power reversal or negligible residual
current, it doesn’t see either for line L4.Then upon checking
the values in the line after L2 it observes that line L15 has
negligible residual current and decides that fault exists
between L2 and L15.
C. Three phase to ground Fault in node 730:
The switch agents in all the zones start checking sequence
current magnitudes and SW2 notices violation in threshold
magnitude of positive sequence current of L17.Then it starts
checking for fault identification condition for a three fault in
the neighboring lines of L17 that is L16 and L18 for current
reversal or for negligible residual current value. The current
reversal for three phase fault is determined by checking
direction of real power in all the 3 phases of the distribution
line. The agent sees that condition for currents reversal is
satisfied for lines L17 and L18 and locates the fault to be
between both of them.
D. Three phase to ground Fault in node 708:
This is a fault in Zone2 so SW2 acts based on violation of the
positive sequence current magnitudes. L17, L18 and L20
violate the limits. Then, Agent checks for power reversal or
negligible residual current in the neighboring lines of this
lines.Finally.it sees that only the line after L20 that is L21 has
negligible residual current and locates the fault in between
them.
E. Line to Line Fault in node 738:
The switch agents in all the zones start checking sequence
current magnitudes and SW 3 notices violation in threshold
magnitude of negative sequence current of L27, L28 .Then it
starts checking for fault identification condition for a line to
line fault in the neighboring lines of L27 and L28 for current
reversal or for negligible residual current value. The current
reversal for three phase fault is determined by checking
direction of real power in 2 phases of the distribution line and
it real power flows in opposite direction in at least 2 phases,
and then it is a current reversal condition. The agent sees that
condition for currents reversal is satisfied for lines L28 and its
neighbor L29 and locates the fault to be between both of them.
V. CONCLUSION
The work employs multi-agent system based on sequence
current magnitudes and current to locate a fault in a Microgrid
system. The proposed Multi-agent system makes use of a
Hierarchical model in which fault detection is done at the top
level while the fault location is done at the zonal level. The
Microgrid system is developed by adding solar PV model
distributed generation at various nodes of a benchmark
IEEE37 bus system. The Multi agent system is tested on this
modified Ieee37 bus system. Different fault types like Single
line to ground, Line to Line and Three Phase to ground faults
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have been successfully located by this agent system. The next
stage of the work shall be focused on the development of an
agent system to achieve optimal energy management of the
island Microgrid that will be formed because of the fault
isolation of the faults at some locations on the IEEE37 bus
system considered.
VI. REFERENCES
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[10] http://jade.tilab.com
[11] Radial Distribution Test Feeders,
http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/pes/dsacom/testfeeders.html
VII. BIOGRAPHIES
Seetaram Alwala was born in Hyderabad, India on April 24, 1988. He
graduated with a Bachelors degree from Osmania University in 2009.He is
currently pursuing his Masters Degree in Electrical engineering, WVU. His
research interests are Multi Agent system application in power system, Smart
grids, Modeling and Simulation of power system.
Ali Feliachi received the Diplôme d’Ingénieur en Electrotechnique from
Ecole Nationale Polytechnique of Algiers in 1976, and MS (1979) and Ph.D.
(1983) in EE from Georgia Tech. He is the holder of the Electric Power
Systems Chair position, and the Director of the Advanced Power & Electricity
Research Center at West Virginia University. His area of interest is modeling
and control of large scale power systems.
Muhammad A. Choudhry received B.Sc. (EE) from University
of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan in 1973. He received M.S.
(EE) from the University of Kansas in 1977 and the Ph.D. degree from Purdue
University in 1981. He joined West Virginia in 1981 and is a professor in the
Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. His areas of
interest are HVDC Systems, System Stability, Optimal Control, and Power
Electronics.