SGER: Cooperative Control: New Alternatives for the Second Wave of the Power System Revolution

9615599塔鲁克达尔这是一项提议，旨在为一个未经检验的新想法做前期工作：使用自主的、合作的代理来控制未来的电力系统。在今天的电力系统中，控制器是按等级安排的。较高级别的控制器调整较低级别控制器的设置点。但控制器不允许合作(交互)。也就是说，控制员不能相互帮助来做更好的工作。具体地说，没有两个控制器可以在同一时间范围内调整任何系统变量的值。采取这种预防措施是为了将不稳定的风险降到最低。任何控制问题都可以表示为优化问题。该方案的作者已经证明，收敛到优化问题的良好解是某些自治智能体的突然行为，当允许这些智能体以某种方式合作时，可以获得更好的解。这意味着，如果自主控制器以正确的方式合作，就可以实现对电力系统的更有效的控制。拟议的工作是为这一想法提供概念验证，并确定将提供控制优势的合作形式。如果成功，这项工作将开辟一个新的研究领域--合作控制--并迈出显著改变电力系统控制方式的第一步。灵活的交流输电系统、电力储存和燃料电池等新兴硬件技术使协同控制成为可能。其中许多技术已经处于示范阶段。一旦它们进入部署阶段，引入新的控制技术可能就太晚了。因此，必须立即对合作控制的想法进行初步调查。***

9615599 Talukdar This is a proposal to do preliminary work on an untested and novel idea: to use autonomous, cooperating agents to control future electric power systems. In today's power systems, controllers are arranged in hierarchy. Controllers in higher levels adjust the set points of controllers in lower levels. But the controllers are not allowed to cooperate (interact). That is, controllers cannot help one another to do a better job. Specifically, no two controllers can adjust the value of any system variable in the same time frame. This precaution is taken to minimize the risk of instability. Any control problem can be formulated as an optimization problem. The authors of this proposal have shown that convergence to good solutions of optimization problems is an emergent behavior of certain mixes of autonomous agents, and much better solutions are obtained when the agents are allowed to cooperate in certain ways. The implication is that much more effective control of power systems could be achieved by autonomous controllers, provided these controllers cooperate in the right way. The proposed work is to provide a proof-of-concept for this idea and identify the forms of cooperation that would provide control advantages. If successful, this work will open a new research area--cooperative control--and take the first step in dramatically changing the way power systems are controlled. Emerging hardware technologies, such as flexible AC transmission systems, electric storage, and fuel cells, make cooperative control feasible. Many of these technologies are already in the demonstration stage. Once they reach the deployment stage, it will probably be too late to introduce a new control technique. Therefore, it is imperative that the preliminary investigation of the idea of cooperative control be undertaken immediately. ***