Cluster validity analysis for electricity load profiling

The main function of load profiles is to provide information on the consumer's electrical consumption. Such information is useful for both consumers and suppliers. Consumers can participate in the retail market and keep track of their actual power consumption and suppliers could use such information for load management, develop electricity tariffs, etc. Main objective of this paper is to do cluster validity analysis for load profile determination by using Fuzzy C-Means (FCM). Fuzzy C-Means is a well known clustering algorithm for typical load profiles determination and the data classification is achieved by minimizing the objective function iteratively. Results of the FCM algorithm depend on the selection of the initial cluster center or the initial membership value. Cluster validity indexes which are non-fuzzy index, Xie-Beni index and Davies-Bouldin index are used to determine the optimal number of cluster. The measured load profiles used in this project are obtained from Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), a Malaysian distribution company.