A wavelet based novel method for the detection of harmonic sources in power systems

► A new method based on DWT is presented for the identification of disturbing loads. ► Detail active power provides information about the source of harmonic pollution. ► This method can detect the location of dominant source of harmonic pollution. Harmonic pollution is one of the most important power quality problems in power system. There is an urgent requirement for the proper identification of the location of the source of harmonic pollution in order that remedial measures can be taken for the improvement of power quality at the consumer premises. This paper presents a new method based on discrete wavelet transform for the identification of prevailing disturbing loads in power systems downstream or upstream from the metering section. It is based on the analysis of detail active power quantities which are based on IEEE Standard 1459-2000 approach. The detail active powers at the lowest level along with the details pollution factor have been used to clearly identify the location of the harmonic source. The simulation results presented here show that the proposed method can effectively indicate the presence of nonlinear load under both sinusoidal and distorted supplies and can also detect the dominant source of harmonic pollution in power system network.