A case study of multi-agent interoperability in IEC 61850 environments

The IEC 61850 is the most promising standard for design of substation communication and automation systems. On the other hand multi-agents systems are attracting growing interest for different applications of substation automation systems. In multiagent systems agents represent different stake holders in the power system and based on implemented decision making logic they determine optimal operational conditions for the power system's given boundary conditions. Interoperability is of course a necessary pre-requisite for such architectures. Here we identify two aspects of interoperability; horizontal and vertical. Horizontal interoperability is relies on common semantic models of the power system that the agents can use to make decisions. One such semantic model is presented in the IEC 61970 Common Information Model (CIM). At this level, the IEC 61850 standard provides a model for access to information and control functions that has the necessary flexibility needed. In this paper we discuss the mapping between a multi-agent based architecture for power system control and the IEC 61850 standard for utility automation. The mapping is based on a use-case drive approach, in which the information exchange need is defined by the multi-agent system.