Instruments and Systems: Monitoring, Control, and Diagnostics Annotation << Back Prospects for the Development of Electric Power Networks in the form of Multi-Agent Systems I.K. NIKIFOROV The reasons for the need to abandon the complete transition to digital methods of information processing used in relay protection and automation of power supply systems are considered. This is justified by the emerging problems in the application of traditional management methods in electric power systems; it is shown how to get around these problems. It is noted that the basis of power supply in the near future will be clusters of power plants heterogeneous on the principle of obtaining electric energy, combined into multi-agent system. The implementation of such a structure will require a radical change in inter-industry relations, the development and implementation of new information principles for managing the electric power structure. The latter are considered neural network technologies based on fuzzy logic, combined with modified current computational methods based on the "modernization" and refinement of a number of methods of digital information processing. Keywords: digital methods of information processing, relay protection and automation, electric power networks, fuzzy logic, activeaddaptive networks. DOI: 10.25791/pribor.2.2022.1321 Pp. 13-21.