Software tool for real time power quality disturbance analysis and classification

Real time detection and classification of power quality disturbances is important for quick diagnosis and mitigation of such disturbances. This paper presents the development of a software tool based on MatLab for power quality disturbance analysis and classification. Prior to the development of the software tool, the disturbance signals are captured and processed in real-time using the TMS320C6711DSP starter kit. Digital signal processor is used to provide fast data capture, fast data processing and signal processing flexibility with increased system performance and reduced system cost. The developed software tool can be used for real-time and off-line disturbance analysis by displaying the detected disturbance, % harmonics of a signal, total harmonic distortion and results of the S-transform, fast Fourier transform and continuous wavelet transform analyses. In addition, graphical representation of the input signal, power quality indices including sag and swell magnitudes are also displayed on the graphical user interface. PQ disturbance classification results show that accurate disturbance classification can be obtained with a total % of correct classification of 99.3%. Such a software tool can serve as a simple and reliable means for PQ disturbance detection and classification.