Affiliations: [a] E.ON Energy Research Center, RWTH Aachen University, Institute for Automation of Complex Power Systems, Aachen, Germany | [b] Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy | [c] Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy | Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Minnesota, 4-192 EE/CS Building, 200 Union Street S.E., Minneapolis, MN 55455-0159, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Dr. Loredana Cristaldi, Associate professor, Dipartimento di Elettrotecnica, Politecnico di Milano, p.za L. da Vinci 32, Milan, Italy. Tel.: +39 022 399 3751; Fax: +39 022 399 3703; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: The energy management in complex power electronic systems especially in case of limited power availability is challenging. In these systems generators, loads, energy storage devices and electrical power routers must be dynamically controlled and reconfigured based on need and priority in order to accommodate the power demand. Furthermore, to achieve optimal use of the available energy, soft continuous reconfiguration is more effective than hard switching reconfiguration. The implementation of this capability in large systems calls for distribution on one hand and integration on the other hand, of control functionalities with monitoring, decision making and other ancillary functions. A multi-agent framework has been proposed in the literature to control these systems. Agents must perform different tasks such as measurement, control, computation, decision making, and simulation, each task being best performed in a specific hardware or software environment. The focus of this work is a heterogeneous agent-based monitoring and control system, while the aim is to allow the use of interactive and proactive capabilities proper of agents. For this purpose dedicated interfaces between the agents and the measurement, control and simulation environments have been implemented. The presented application is the load management in a limited-power, power electronic system.
Keywords: Distributed control, reconfigurable architecture, power electronics
