A hybrid classifier for power quality (PQ) problems using wavelets packet transform (WPT) and artificial neural networks (ANN)

This paper introduces a novel automatic hybrid classifier to detect and classify the Power Quality(PQ) problems in power systems using Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). Various PQ events like Normal, Sag, Swell and Interruptions are obtained by modeling three phase distribution system using MATLAB simulink. For classification, the selection of suitable features from the disturbance signal is extremely important. Recent literature survey deals with various signal processing techniques like Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) and Wavelet Packet Transform (WPT) were used for feature extraction. From the above techniques, the main issues addressed are selection of optimal feature subset and the design of ANN architecture model. To build a competent and robust classifier, it is essential to extract the utilizable feature vectors from the disturbance signal that can optimize data size as well as incorporate the main characteristics of the signal. This paper addresses these issues, and the distinctive feature vectors are obtained with reduced number of coefficients by using Energy Entropy based WPT. From these, the best discriminative feature vectors with reduced number of coefficients are obtained and are used as input to ANN, so that the burden over classification can be reduced. The classification performance is compared with FFT based ANN. The simulation results obtained have significant improvement over existing methods. Thus the proposed hybrid classifier provides the most excellent detection among PQ problems that arises in real time by improving classification accuracy in terms of both computation time and means square error.