A stochastic negotiation approach to power restoration problems in a smart grid

In this paper we propose a negotiation protocol for multi-feeder agents who must resolve the conflicts in order to find an optimal allocation of power in order for the power restoration after a blackout in a power grid. Since the power distribution domain constraints and cost, the optimal power distribution criteria involves multi-objectives such as number of changes of switches, number of power zones restored, and etc. It is not usually easy to come up with an optimal solution in a scaled-up complicated power grid topology within a limited time. We implemented two stochastic decision functions PDF and ZDF for feeder agents to decide whether to accept a proposal of other feeder agent who requests a restoration zone and whether to request a candidate target zone to deliver the power respectively in the negotiation. We show that with ZDF the feeder agents can negotiate faster to come up with the optimal solution than without ZDF. Finally we also show that our negotiation is a real time algorithm and show the performance curve of negotiation in terms of the restoration rate.