The agent metaphor has become increasingly popular in distributed computing systems. As often with a new paradigm, it is not very clear what the exact meaning is. The meaning and the development of the agent paradigm is therefore discussed in this paper. One motivation for using agents in distributed systems is that, due to the rapid technical development of computing and communication facilities, these systems become larger, more complex, and with more heterogeneous components. The change rate for such systems will also increase. Another, but related, motivation is that, in many cases, the systems are open and emergent in new respects: Different parties will be in control of parts of the total system, and the change of the system may not be altogether predictable. It is simply not possible to describe the total system from any one point of focus or at any one point in time, meaning that traditional methods for describing and implementing the systems are not sufficient. Industrial applications (e.g. manufacturing systems, process control systems, or resource management systems) show many of the characteristics mentioned above. Specifically, there is a demand for integrating quite dispersed applications, for example systems for process control, market analysis, and economic management. There is also a stronger demand for communication and interacting with sub-contractors, partners, and customers. This is emphasized with the development of a common communication medium like the Internet. In the ISES project, the agent paradigm is studied and developed for use in Power Distribution Auto-mation. Examples of this work are given here, and the applicability of agent technology is shown for applications that concern Distribution Automation, Demand Side Management, and Home Automa-tion. It is also argued for the applicability of agent technology in other types of industrial applica-tions, based on similarities between problem domains.