A data mining method for obtaining global

power quality index

Sara Nourollah

Mehdi Moallem

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Isfahan University of Technology
Isfahan, Iran
saranourollah@yahoo.com

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Isfahan University of Technology
Isfahan, Iran
moallem@eng.iut.ac.ir

Abstract-The new development in power system such as

restructuring and competetive electricity market make
power quality an important factor in competition.
However, to find a measure for power quality
evaluation is very difficult due to many indices involved
in power quality standards. For this reason, obtaining a
single quantitative index based on the standard
measurements has been a new challenge in recent
researches. Data mining methods are required for this
purpose due to the large amount of data obtained from
power quality measurements. In this paper, a data
mining method is proposed to determine a global index
for power quality. The continuous and discrete indices
of power quality are considered and the Unified Power
Quality Index (UPQI) is presented for each power
quality index, based on the method of incorporation and
normalization. The indices normalized and classified.
The power quality level of each distribution site is
determined by the Fast Independent Component
Analysis (Fast-ICA) algorithm. The power quality
measurements of 313 distribution sites in Iran are used
to classify the indices for different type of loads in the
distribution system.

grid and other customers [1]. To adapt the request of

market, such as complete assessing of power quality,
amending the price of power and finally realizing
higher price for higher quality, the traditional power
quality evaluation could be more extensive in
meaning, more integrated in framework and more
realizable in characterization [1]. The disturbances of
power quality and their negative effects on the power
system can be evaluated by the power quality indices.
Many studies have been carried out to determine the
power quality disturbances and to introduce the
effective indices for explaining their features. Some
of these studies are as follows: Improved-ICA [2],
Fuzzy Clustering Analysis [3], presenting a method
based on the s-transform [4], a method based on the
fuzzy-wavelet transform [5], a method for obtaining a
global index of discrete disturbances [6], introducing
the new indices of power quality [7].

Key Words-Power Quality, Data Mining, Fast-ICA,

Classification.

I. INTRODUCTION
In the past two decades, the electric power quality
has become very important for several reasons such
as the increase nonlinear loads such as arc and power
electronic loads, expansion of the sensitive loads
such as computers and microprocessors, expansion of
the interconnected power networks, renewing the
structure in the electric industry and providing the
competitive electric market. Power quality mainly
includes voltage quality of supply and emission limit
of the load currents. The former is to evaluate the
effects of supply voltage on customers and loads, and
the latter is to indicate the disturbances of load to the

To study power quality of distribution sites needs

to collect and assessment many different data, related
to the types of power quality indices. The measured
data are not in a suitable form to present the power
quality condition of a site or a special area. Although
considerable endeavors have been already performed
to define the different kinds of power quality
disturbances and their indices, it is less tried to
determine a specific framework for determining a
global power quality index.
In this paper, a data mining method is proposed for
defining the global power quality index. The
continuous and discrete phenomena of power quality,
indices and their limitations are firstly introduced. In
part 4, a normalization and incorporation method of
recorded indices is presented to evaluate the annual
index of each power quality indices. In part 5, the

power quality indices are linearly classified from the

best to worst levels. In part 6, the FAST-ICA
algorithm and its application are described in order to
determine a global power quality index for each
distribution site is discussed. In part VII, the power
quality of a real distribution system is evaluated by
the measured data of 313 sites, based on the type of
load.
II. DESCRIPTION OF THE METHOD
After measuring single indices of power quality for
obtaining two global indices of power quality, there
are five step which should be followed:
1.

Introduce
continuous
and
discrete
phenomena of power quality and their
limitations.

2.

Normalize and incorporate recorded indices

to evaluate the annual index of each power
quality indices.

3.

Classify the power quality indices linearly

from the best to worst levels.

Fig. 1

4.

Implement the Fast-ICA algorithm in order

to determine weight matrix (w) and then
distance index for each distribution site.

5.

Evaluate two global indices for six type of

loads.

III.

POWER QUALITY PHENOMENA AND

THEIR INDICES

Since years ago, some of the measurable

parameters have been accepted as the power quality
phenomena. These parameters determine the power
quality level in the monitoring point. The national
and international standards define limitations for
these parameters. The power quality phenomena are
divided to two continuous and discrete groups. Some
of the most important phenomena are shown in Fig. 1
[8].
For any continuous power quality phenomena, an
index is presented in various standards that their
recommended limits according to Iran Power
Industry Standards-Power Quality (IPIS) for 20 KV
are presented in Table I.

Power quality phenomena and their classification

TABLE I. Recommended limits of continuous disturbances according to IPIS for 20 KV

Index

Pst

Plt

F_div

V_unbal%

I_unbal%

THDi%

THDv%

Pf

V_div%

Limit

0.9

0.7

0.6

0.9

In general, there are few methods for defining the

discrete power quality indices and no international
standard has been still presented. Some of these
methods provide a count of event frequency and
duration, the undelivered energy during events or the
cost and severity of the disturbances.
One of the most common methods of evaluating
the discrete power quality phenomena is using
voltage tolerance curves that are plots of equipment
maximum acceptable voltage deviation versus time
duration for acceptable operation. The most famous
of these curves are Computer and Business
Equipment Manufactors Association (CBEMA) and
Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC)
curves. In [9], the RPM index is presented, based on
the CBMA graph. In [9] deficiencies of RPM index
are mentioned and better method of least squares was
applied to the log plot of CBEMA/ITIC curves.
According to this method, an index named Contour
Number (CN) in equation (1) is calculated for each
point of the graph in Fig. 2.

CN =

V 1

For any discrete phenomenon, permissible limits of

CN index based on recorded data in 9 European
countries and method given in [9] are presented in
Table II. In this method, the indices are generated by
the number of events in each region of CBEMA
curve using UNIPEDE DISDIP survey results and
Electric Power Research Institute DPQ project data
and weighting them in each region [9].
TABLE II. permitted limits of CN
Index

CN_sag

CN_swell

CN_Os.transient

Limit

(1)

V CBMA / ITIC 1

,where VCBMA/ITIC is calculated based on equation (2),

(3), (4):
1

0.0035 1.22
VCBEMA Sag (t ) = 0.86

0.000295
VCBEMA Swell (t ) = 1.06 +

1.48

(2)

(3)

0.00076 1.014
V ITIC Os.trans (t ) = 1.2 +

(4)

Fig. 2 CBEMA and ITIC curve fittings for different discrete

disturbance types (i.e., voltage sags, swells, and transients) [9].

IV. COMPUTING THE ANNUAL INDICES

OF A DISTRIBUTION SITE
During a year, a distribution site is frequently
studied and its power quality indices are calculated
and recorded. The recorded data are not in a suitable
form to show the power quality status of site.
Therefore, it requires to present a method for this
problem. The following method is based on the
normalization and incorporation procedure of
recorded indices during a year.

A. Normalization
In order to normalize, each recorded index is
divided to its permitted amount. For example, the
permitted amount of Pst index is 0.9. If the recorded
value for the Pst index is 0.8, its normalized value will
be 0.89. So, the final indices obtained by
normalizing, have a simple feature that their
permitted value is 1.
B. Incorporation
For incorporation procedure, the recorded and
normalized indices of each index during a year are
incorporated in a way that a suitable annual standard
is obtained for each index. Generally, the average or
maximum value is used for incorporation. But it is
shown that these standards are not suitable, and a
better standard is presented. There is a need for a
single number, which we call the Unified Power
Quality Index (UPQI), to summarise the overall level
of PQ disturbances. The maximum and average
method and proposed method are compared in Table
III. The presented values in the table consist of the
measured samples of an index for 3 distribution sites.
The Power Quality Index(PQI) average equals the
average value and the PQImaximum equals the
maximum value in the annual recorded value of
index. As it is presented in table 3, the recorded
values of site 1 are all in their permitted limits and
there is no problem with the power quality.
Nevertheless, the PQIaverage value of site 1 is more
than site 3, while one of the recorded value of site 3
is more than the permitted limit. Therefore, the
average value is not a suitable standard for
incorporation. In addition, the PQImaximum value of
site 2 and site 3 are equal, while three recorded value
of site 2 are more than the permitted limits, and site 3
has only an unpermitted value and it is in a better
status. So, the maximum value is also not a suitable
standard for incorporation. In this paper, it is
suggested that the UPQI value is applied for
incorporation. This index is computed according to
the following instructions:
1) If all the recorded value are less than 1, the UPQI
value equals the maximum of recorded values which
indicates the greatest probability of its effect on the
power system,s customers.

2) If some of the recorded values are more than 1, the

UPQI value equals the addition of 1 with average of
trepass values that the trepass values is index value
minus 1. If an index is less than 1, the trepass value is
zero.
As it is shown in Table III, UPQI value of site 2 is
less than site 3 and UPQI value of site 3 is less than
site 1 that its reliability is accordant with intuition.
TABLE III. Comparing of average, maximum and proposed
methods.
Site
1

First sample

0.8

1.2

0.5

Second sample

0.7

0.6

0.1

Third sample

0.8

1.4

0.4

Fourth sample

0.8

1.4

1.4

PQIavarage

0.8

1.1

0.6

PQImaximum

0.8

1.4

1.4

UPQI

0.8

1.4

1.1

Samples

V. CLASSIFICATION
After computing the UPQI indices for each power
quality index and distribution site, the recorded data
are reduced by classifying them in their permitted
and unpermitted area in order to change the data into
a set of coherent and useful data. The procedure is
that the power quality indices are linearly classified
according to their maximum of permitted level. The
permitted maximum of each phenomenon is in class
3. The classes 1, 2 and 3 are the permitted areas and
the classes 4, 5, 6 and 7 are the unpermitted areas of
power quality phenomena. When the classification
level becomes closer from class 1 to class 7, the
quality level of phenomena is reduced. In Table IV,
numbering the classes is presented based on their
quality expression. Now this question is put forward
that in which level of power quality, a distribution
site with the various power quality indices is
classified. In the next section, the ICA algorithm is
proposed to solve this problem. Table V shows the
classification levels of the normalized power quality

} {

indices. This classification is performed by studying

and examining more than a hundred of measured
points in Iran.

w E x.g ( wT .x) E g ( wT .x) w

TABLE IV. Numbering the classes based on their quality

The steps of implementing the FAST-ICA algorithm

are as follows:

1
g 3 (y) = y 4
4

expression.
Class 1

Excellent

Class 2

Very good

Class 3

Good

Class 4

Medium

Class 5

Bad

Class 6

Very bad

Class 7

Terrible

(6)

g 3 ( y ) = y 3 (7)

1. The x data are transformed such that they have

zero mean and preprocessed by whitening .
2. An initial unit norm vector w is chosen randomly.
3. The functions g, g are calculated according to
equations (7).

VI. FAST-ICA ALGORITHM

4. The w is updated according to equation (6).

The ICA algorithm is a known method for finding

the hidden structure of data. In linear position, the
ICA model is as below:

x = ws

5. The w is again normalized to have unit norm.

6. The steps 3, 4, 5 are repeated until the
convergence.

(5)

For example, in order to use the ICA algorithm for

determining the quality level of 10 measured sites in
the 20KV distribution system of Isfahan province, the
data matrix x is presented as blow. By implementing
the FAST-ICA algorithm, the matrix w is computed
in dimensions 112. With

where x is the data matrix and w is the hidden

structure of data. There are various methods for
computing the matrix w such as FAST-ICA algorithm
which estimates the matrix w by the following
equations:

TABLE V. Classifying the limit of changes of 12 power quality phenomena.

Class 1

Class 2

Class 3

Class 4

Class 5

Class 6

Class 7

V_dev

0.33

0.66

THDv

0.33

0.66

THDi

0.33

0.66

2.25

3.5

4.75

7.5

V_unbal

0.33

0.66

1.5

2.5

I_unbal

0.33

0.66

2.25

3.5

4.75

7.5

F_dev

0.33

0.66

1.16

1.33

1.5

Pf

0.33

0.66

10

Pst

0.33

0.66

1.33

1.66

5.55

Plt

0.33

0.66

1.43

1.86

2.29

5.72

CN_Swell

0.33

0.66

1.8

2.6

3.4

10

CN_Sag

0.33

0.66

10

CN_Trans

0.33

0.66

10

0.14
1.00

0.12

0.12
1.00

1.00
0.12

0.15
X =
1.00

0.33

0.66
1.00

1.33
1.66

2.00
5.55

0.44
0.98

0.417 0.2
0.409 0.15

0.51
0.41

1.08
1.02

0.59
0.54

0.41
0.88

1.02
0.85

1.11
0.32

0.14
0.43

0.36
0.34

0.433 0.29
0.483 0.22

0.51
0.49

1.00
0.43

0.68
0.28

0.52
0.17

1.13
0.72

1.53
1.12

0.34
0.02

0.96
0.85

0.459 0.37
0.398 0.18

0.66
0.24

0.99
1.07

0.44
0.76

1.02
1.00

2.00
0.64

1.37
0.3

0.57
0.51

0.33
0.48

0.83
0.45

0.15
0.16

1.00
0.55

1.00
1.15

0.13
0.39

1.61
1.00

1.00
1.00

0.33
0.12

1.77
0.18

0.82
0.33

0.53
0.33

0.25
0.33

0.41
0.33

1.00
0.33

0.43
0.33

0.61
0.33

1.5
0.33

0.04
0.33

0.56
0.33

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66
1.00

0.66 0.66
1.00 1.00

0.66
1.00

1.43
1.86

1.16
1.33

1.50
2.00

2.25
3.50

2.25
3.50

1.50
3.00

2.00
3.00

3.00
5.00

2.00
3.00

1.80
2.60

2.29
5.72

1.50
5.00

2.50
5.00

4.75
7.50

4.75
7.50

4.00
5.00

4.00
10.0

7.00 4.00
9.00 10.0

3.40
10.0

using these weighting coefficients, the close degree

of any class or site of matrix X can be calculated,
according to the Euclidean space distance method.
First, the virtual optimal and worst points of
indicators are obtained as:

r j+ = max{xij }

0.12
0.18
0.44

0.11
0.38

0.21
0.06

0.06
0.14

0.33

0.66
1.00

2.00
3.00

4.00
10.0

If Ci is closer to zero, the position of that point is

better. The indices C1 to C10 are related to 10
measured site and C11 to C17 are related to 7 defined
classes. For each site, the Ci is calculated and set in a
class that its Ci is closer to. Therefore, all the
measured sites are qualitatively classified.
VII. RESULT AND DISCUSSION

1i 313
j =1, 2 ,...12

(8)

r j = max{xij }
1i 313
j =1, 2 ,...12

Then, the Euclidean distance of samples are

calculated by best point (d+) and the worst point (d-)
based on equation (9):

In this section, the power quality status is examined

for each type of loads in a real distribution system.
Here, the measured data of 313 distribution sites are
evaluated in 4 provinces Isfahan, Qazvin, Khuzestan
and Kurdistan. The measured sites are divided in to 6
groups as follows:
Group 1: metallic and casting industry.
Group 2: textile industry.

d i+ =

W j ( xij r j+ ) 2
j =1

d i

Group 3: nutritional and chemical industry.

(9)

W j ( xij r j ) 2

Group 4: nonmetallic and stonework industry.

Group 5: residential, public and hospital.

j =1

Group 6: mixed load.

where m=12 and i=1,2,,17. Finally, close degree
(Ci) is obtained as:

Ci =

d i
d i + d i+

(10)

In Table VI, the number of points, related to each

type of load is shown.

TABLE VI. Number of measured points related to each type of

load.
Type of load

Number of measured points

metallic and casting industry

73

textile industry

17

nutritional and chemical industry

31

nonmetallic and stonework industry

65

residential, public and hospital

47

mixed load

81

There are two global indices defined with names of

Supply side Power Performance Index (SPPI) and
Load side Power Performance Index (LPPI). SPPI
shows effect of six voltage power quality indices and
LPPI shows effect of three current power quality
indices. In each class, The redundancy percentage of
twelve indices is calculated for different load types.
For instance, the bar graph of redundancy percentage
for metallic and casting industry, related to three
current indices are shown in Fig. 3.

this method, the recorded data were normalized,

incorporated and classified. Then, the power quality
level of several distribution sites was evaluated,
based on the type of load and position in the
distribution system.In the view point of the type of
loads, it can be noted that the nonmetallic and
stonework industry has the best level according to the
global power quality index In all types of loads, four
index have the best quality with compared to other
indices: voltage unbalance, total harmonic distortion,
voltage swell and transients.
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Fig. 3 The bar graph of redundancy percentage for metallic and

casting industry, related to three current indices.

In each class, the redundancy percentage of global

power quality indices is calculated for different load
types. According to results, the class related to the
greatest redundancy percentage for each type of
loads, are presented in Table VII.
TABLE VII. The class related to the greatest redundancy
percentage for each type of loads
Group1

Group2

Group3

Group4

Group5

Group6

SPPI

LPPI

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[9]

VIII. CONCLUTION
In this paper, a method is presented to obtain two
power quality global indices for the recorded data. In

IEEE Recommended Practice for Monitoring Electric Power

Quality, IEEE Std. 1159-1995, Jun. 1995.
M. Fleming, Predicting power quality, Power Transmis.
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