Power quality diagnosis in distribution networks using support vector regression based S-transform technique

This paper presents a novel method for performing automatic power quality diagnosis to identify the causes of short duration voltage disturbances such as voltage sags and swells. Such voltage disturbances can be caused by permanent or non permanent faults. A permanent fault causes permanent damage and power interruption to the customers whereas a non permanent fault can be categorized as either transient or incipient faults. In the proposed power quality diagnosis method, a time frequency analysis technique called as the S-transform is used to analyse and extract features of voltage disturbances recorded from the power quality monitoring system. The support vector regression which is an intelligent technique is then used identify whether the voltage disturbances are caused by permanent, non permanent, transient or incipient faults. Test results proved that the proposed power quality diagnosis method can provide accurate diagnosis on the causes of short duration voltage disturbances.