A hybrid approach to classify power quality problems in distribution systems

Abstract

Electrical power systems are expected to transmit continuously nominal rated sinusoidal voltage and current to consumers. However, the widespread use of power electronics has brought power quality problems. This study performs classification of power quality disturbances using an artificial neural network (ANN). The most appropriate ANN structure was determined using the Box-Behnken experimental design method. Nine types of disturbance (no fault, voltage sag, voltage, swell, flicker, harmonics, transient, DC component, electromagnetic interference, and instant interruption) were investigated in computer simulations. The feature vectors used in the identification of the different types of disturbances were produced using the discrete wavelet transform and principal component analysis. Our results show that the optimized feed forward multilayer ANN structure successfully distinguishes power quality disturbances in simulation data and was also able to identify these disturbances in real time data from substations.