A Review of Methods Employed to Identify Flicker Producing Sources

TELKOMNIKA, Vol.16, No.2, April 2018, pp. 465~480
ISSN: 1693-6930, accredited A by DIKTI, Decree No: 58/DIKTI/Kep/2013
DOI: 10.12928/TELKOMNIKA.v16i2.6678  465
Received June 20, 2017; Revised November 19, 2017; Accepted February 2, 2018
A Review of Methods Employed to Identify Flicker
Producing Sources
Jeevan J. Inamdar*
1
, K. Iyswarya Annapoorani
2
School of Electrical Engineering, VIT University, Chennai, India-600127
*Corresponding author, e-mail: Jeevan.jagannath2016@vitstudent.ac.in
Abstract
Because of increasing requirements of the present consumers and industrial units utilizing
sensitive loads, there is need of good power quality in order to retain the power quality standards.
Nowadays the study of the voltage flicker is becoming essential partof power quality studies. The flicker is
typically the effect of a rapidly changing load which is large with respect to the short circuit ability of an
electrical supply system. The inferior effects of voltage flicker include malfunctioning of power electronic
equipment.Also it causes annoying effects to human.Hence detection of the flicker source is an essential
step in the power quality assessmentprocess.This paper delivers a review aboutmethods used to identify
flicker producing loads in accordance with IEC 61000-4-15. Once the report related to the disturbance
place is known,an investigation and corrective action can be accordingly carried out. Also a method based
upon Discrete Wavelet Transform and Artificial Neural Network is proposed to detect initial instance of
occurrence of flicker.
Keywords: power quality, voltage flicker, flicker source, discrete wavelet transform, artificial neural
network
Copyright © 2018 Universitas Ahmad Dahlan. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
The Voltage flicker has great significance in the field of power quality as it causes
various problems in the power system network [1]. The voltage flicker can be defined as a
noticeable change in brightness of a lamp due to speedy fluctuations in the voltage of the power
supply [2]. It is also described as amplitude modulation of voltage whose frequency varies from
1 Hz to 20 Hz [2]. The root cause of flicker is weakness of power system relative to power
requirement by load. There is considerable change in current over a short time of period if a
system is not capable of supplying demand required by load, which results in voltage flicker [3].
The common sources of flicker are an elevator motor’s starts and stops, manual spot welders,
electric arc furnaces, reciprocating pumps and starting of a large motor [3].In some cases
combination of interharmonics with supply voltage results in luminous flux and produce flicker
[3]. The interharmonics are produced due to static frequency converters, cycloconverters,
induction furnaces, sub synchronous converter cascades and arc furnaces [3]. The effect of
voltage flicker includes reduction in operational efficiency of the electric arc furnaces, reduction
in the life of the electrical motors, malfunctioning of the security system [3]. The apparatus such
as computers and communication equipments suffer from deleterious effects.
Nowadays utilities as well as consumers have become more attentive to issue of
voltage flicker. The detection of flicker is necessary in order to mitigate it. A soft computing
method for identification of flicker source is presented in this paper. This method is based upon
Discrete Wavelet Transform and Artificial Neural Network. The wavelet transform is used for
extracting features of voltage signal with flicker. A multilayer feed forward neural network with
back propagation algorithm is then trained with these features. The trained network is tested by
applying a new input signal from a flicker source. The accuracy of proposed technique has been
validated by performing simulation in MATLAB/Simulink environment.
This paper is structured in following manner. In section 2 the model of standard IEC
flicker meter is described. The section 3 focuses on theory of flicker source detection and
various methods of flicker source detection. The section 4 covers proposed approach and
results. The paper is concluded in section 5.

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2. Model of Flicker Meter
The most appropriate method of flicker measurement is narrated in IEC 61000-4-15 [4].
Figure 1 shows block diagram of IEC flicker meter [4]. The description of each block is given
below.
2.1. Normalization Block
The input flicker signal enters into this block. After that input voltage level is matched
with electrical specifications of electronic components which are located at downward direction
by reducing its magnitude with the help of a transformer. Also this block contains a signal
generator to test the setting of flickermeter in the field. A circuit for normalizing the rms value of
the input voltage with network frequency at the internal reference level is also included.
2.2. Demodulator with squaring multiplier
The behavior of the incandescent lamp is simulated in this block. The main function of
this block is to split the main voltage signal (Carrier wave) with network frequency from the
voltage fluctuation (ΔV) (modulating signal). This is done by using a square demodulator that
squares the input.
2.3. Weighing Filters
In this block several filters are cascaded to serve the purpose of filtering out unwanted
frequencies produced from the block 2 (demodulator). Another function of this block is weighing
the input signal which helps to simulate the incandescent lamp eye-brain response.
2.4. Squaring and Smoothing
This block performs two functions with the help of a squaring multiplier and sliding mean
filter. Firstly the squaring multiplier squares the voltage signal. This results into simulation of the
nonlinear eye-brain response. The second function is to replicate the short term storage effect
of the brain. This is done by using sliding mean filter which averages the signal. The output of
this block is known as the instantaneous flicker level. If this level is 1 then the flicker is the
perceptible flicker.
2.5. Statistical Evaluation
An arithmetical investigation of the instantaneous flicker level is carried out in this block.
The output of block 4 is separated into appropriate classes to create a histogram. Then each
class is used as an input to create a probability density function which is then used to form a
cumulative distribution function. This data is then incorporated into the microprocessor to
execute real time investigation of the flicker level. Hence direct calculations of the important
estimation parameters are possible. The outputs of this block are flicker severity levels like short
time flicker severity (Pst) and long term flicker severity (Plt).
Figure 1. Block diagram of IEC flicker meter

TELKOMNIKA ISSN: 1693-6930 
A Review of Methods Employed to Identify Flicker Producing Sources (Jeevan J. Inamdar)
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Thus from block diagram of flicker meter it is clear that only voltage value is recognized
to determine value of flicker level. Therefore it does not give any idea about detection flicker
producing load. For detection of flicker source other parameters like power and current are
required in addition to the voltage.
3. Flicker Source Detection Methods
The standards, short term flicker severity (Pst) and long term flicker severity (Plt)
provide information regarding the flicker level except the flicker source direction [2].The
recognition of the direction for the flicker source is of great importance for taking corrective
action .This paper gives a review about methods developed so far to verify the flicker source
direction. The direction is identified with regard to measuring point in the power systems. These
methods are explained below.
3.1. Method based upon Interharmonics
In Dahai et al. 2005 [5] the correlation between interharmonics and flicker is analyzed.
The analysis is explained below. The equation of flicker signal [5] is:
( ) ( ) (1)
Further the equation is simplified as
( ) ( ) ( ) (2)
The Equation (2) interprets that flicker signal comprises of interharmonic frequency components
with frequencies.
Thus flicker causes interharmonics and vice versa. Hence detecting the interharmonics
source is helpful to identify flicker source. Therefore flicker source identification is done by
calculating the interharmonic power direction from a multiflicker source. The paper concludes
that an interharmonic source with negative active power is the dominant source of flicker.
3.2. Slope method
A slope method has been given by Edwin et al. 2005 [6].This method utilizes the rms
values of voltage and current flicker observed at monitoring point of power system located at the
point of common coupling. The direction of active power flow is used to define type of event.
When the fault due to an event is in the in the direction of active power then that event is
downstream event or else it is upstream event. Once the direction of event is determined, slope
method is used to detect flicker producing load. To calculate the slope the rms value of voltage
flicker and current flicker is correlated with each other. The analytical method is explained by
considering system shown in Figure 2 [6]. As shown a variable resistance Rf is used as flicker
producing load. For a downstream event the voltage at PCC is given by Equation (3) [6].
√ - ( - - ) (3)
V and I are voltage and current at point of common coupling respectively.
E1 and E2 are sending end and receiving end voltages respectively.
Z is source impedance, is angle for impedance Z, is an angle between V and I, and δ is an
angle between E1 and E2.
For downstream event the change of voltage with respect to change in current which
remains negative for actual system parameters is given by the Equation (4) while for upstream
event, the positive change of voltage with respect to change in current is given by
Equation (5) [6].
- ( - - )
√ - ( - - )
(4)

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- ( )
√ - ( )
(5)
Figure 2. Equivalent Circuit for Analysis of Flicker Source Detection by Slope Method
It is concluded that if calculated slope is positive then the flicker source has upward direction
and negative sign interprets that the flicker source has downward direction.
3.3. Flicker Power measurement method
Axelberg et al. 2006 [7] present a method based on flicker power measurement is used
to detect flicker producing load. This method uses same technique as described in IEC 61000-
4-15 to acquire low frequency signal (the envelope) of both voltage and current fluctuations. The
amplitude modulation of these signals is used to compute instantaneous flicker power. This
power is obtained by performing multiplication of both signals. This power is subsequently
passed through a low pass filter to obtain so called flicker power. Figure 3 shows block diagram
of this method [7]. Where, u[n] and i[n] are samples of voltage and current flicker signal
respectively. The sign of flicker power is very useful to decide the location of flicker source with
reference to monitoring point. If flicker power is positive (from generator to load) then the source
is upstream that is above the monitoring point while negative (from load to generator) sign
indicates that source is downstream that is below the monitoring point.
Figure 3. Block diagram to compute the flicker power

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3.4. Flicker Energy measurement method
Payam et al. 2007 [8] introduced a method based upon calculation of flicker energy for
determination of direction of flicker source. The flicker energy (E) is calculated by either
Equation (6) or (7).
( ) ∫ ( ) ( ) (6)
∑ ( ) ( ) (7)
where mu(t) and mi(t) are amplitude modulated signals for flicker voltage and flicker current
respectively. Figure 4 shows the block diagram for this method [8]. The summation of
multiplication of discrete time sampled amplitude modulated voltage and current signals results
in the energy signal. When the voltage envelope is in phase with current envelope then the
flicker energy is positive whereas when they are out of phase with respect to each other the
energy is negative. This sign is used to locate the flicker source. For a negative sign the source
direction is downstream and a positive sign depicts upstream direction of the source.
Figure 4. Block diagram for calculation of flicker energy
3.5. Correlation Method
Axelberg et al. 2008[9] presented an idea about identifying a predominant flicker source
from a power system that contains multiple flicker sources. For upstream source, the envelopes
of amplitude modulated voltage and current signals have same phase while for downstream
source these are out of phase with respect to each other. For improving the demodulation
process an envelope detector is used. Figure 5 shows block diagram for calculating the flicker
power [9]. The calculation of flicker power is based upon the correlation between the envelopes
of amplitude modulated voltage and current signals. If there is high correlation between these
two, then the magnitude of flicker power is higher. On the other hand lower correlation results in
lower flicker power. Therefore it is concluded that in a multiflicker source network, the outgoing
line with higher flicker power is the dominant source of flicker.
Figure 5. Block diagram to calculate flicker power

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3.6. A Lookup Method
Moaddabi et al. 2008 [10] narrated about a methodical approach to locate the flicker
source in an integrated network. Also an algorithm to decide least quantity of monitoring
equipments is proposed. The number of monitoring equipments is found by selecting each bus
as base bus one after another. Subsequently, it is checked whether the selected base bus is
connected to flicker source or not. This is carried out by considering flicker power.
Figure 6. A network for preparation of matrix in look up method
Once the number of monitoring devices is known, the task is to optimize this number.
For this minimum reactance of flicker source is obtained. A sign is assigned to each reactance.
For upstream source reactance is positive while for downstream it is negative. A matrix is
formed between all loads and monitoring points for a network shown in Figure 6 [10]. The matrix
is shown in Figure 7 [10]. Let, monitoring equipments are denoted from M1 to M6 and L1 to L6
are flicker loads identifications. Similarly Xij+ (j=i=1to 6) is reactance of flicker source from
upstream direction and Xij- (j=i=1to 6) is reactance of flicker source from downstream direction.
Finally i and j is i
th
and j
th
bus respectively. The elements of this matrix are reactances. For each
monitoring equipment and flicker load, two reactances are allocated. Once the matrix is
completed, the minimization of the equipments number is done by monitoring equipment which
observes minimum reactance.
Figure 7. Monitoring equipment minimization matrix
The respective flicker load is assigned to the equipment with lowest reactance. This
process is repetitive till the half of loads number is reached. For remaining of half flicker loads opposite
signs are assigned. These signs depend upon path of flicker power flow. The smallest positive and
negative reactance gives the information about identification of flicker source in upstream and
downstream direction respectively.

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3.7. Reactive current component method
The method in Altintas et al. 2010 [11] focused on individual flicker contribution of each
load from a network containing multiple flicker sources. The flicker contribution of each load is
defined as a measurement of IEC flickermeter when each load is solely acted upon the common
bus which has constant source voltage. A unique flickermeter called flicker contribution meter is
used to measure flicker contribution of each load. This meter uses the individual reactive current
component. To carry out calculation, the phase angle between each load current and constant
bus voltage is determined with the help of one cycle Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) with
sampling frequency equal to 3.2 kHz. Then multiplying sine of this phase angle by each load
current gives each reactive component. This component is multiplied with constant source
reactance to get reference voltage drop. Finally this drop is given to IEC flickermeter which
gives value of flicker contribution of each load. This method serves purpose of decoupling the
flicker effects of interconnected system and loads. This method is explained with the help an
example as shown in Figure 8 [11]. In Figure 8, in(t) is the phase current of plant ‘n’, ΔV is
change in PCC voltage and Pst,n is Individual Flicker Contribution of plant ‘n’.
Figure 8. Block diagram of individual flicker contribution meter
3.8. Multi-resolution S-transform and ANN method
A technique to spot flicker source in distribution systems is given by Eghtedarpour et al.
2010 [12]. The block diagram is shown in Figure 9 [12]. The multi-resolution S-transform is used
to extract the flicker index. Initially the bus voltages are measured and sampled. Then a
magnitude–time plot of S-transform is used to identify flicker index which can be used to
quantify the occurrence of flicker. The reason behind using the magnitude–time contour is that
the counters of two signals with different frequency but with equal amplitude are not same and
therefore their flicker indices will be different. After extracting the flicker indices of all voltage
measurements, the maximum flicker index is identified. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is used
for source identification. The flicker indices, which are calculated by using S-transform, are
inputs to the ANN. The output of the ANN is the indication of existence of flicker source in a
particular bus. Further synthesis of output of ANN is done with the intention of identification the
flicker source. If all output values not including the maximum are, less than 0.5 p.u. then the bus
with the highest value is chosen as the flicker producing bus. On the other hand if there are
more than one output values greater than 0.5 p.u., a zone which has buses with outputs greater
than 0.5, is considered as flicker producing zone. The drawback of this method is that, it cannot
be used for a large network to identify location of flicker source.

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Figure 9. Block diagram for detection of flicker source by multi-resolution S-Transform and ANN
method
3.9. Calculation of Flicker Power Using Coherent Detector
Poormonfaredazimi et al. 2012 [13] use same technique of flicker power to detect
direction. But the algorithm used to calculate flicker power is different. For demodulation of
voltage and current flicker signal a coherent detector is used. Figure 10 illustrates the block
diagram for the method [13].
Figure 10. Block diagram of flicker power calculation by using coherent detector
In Figure 10 m’u(t) and m’i(t) are outputs of band pass filter for amplitude modulated
voltage and current signal respectively. FP(t) is instantaneous flicker power. The advantage of
this method is that, it does not generate extra small frequency component in flicker frequency
range. The major drawback of this detector is that, it needs exact and detailed information of the
frequency and phase angle of signal. In order to obtain frequency and phase angle wavelet
transform is used. For analyzing different phenomenon of the power network various wavelet
functions are used. This paper uses modulated Gaussian wavelet for frequency identification of
carrier signal. A comparison is also given for calculation of flicker power based upon different
modulators like square demodulator, envelope detector and coherent detector and wavelet
transform. This comparison shows that the method employed in this paper gives good results.
3.10. State Estimation Method
A state estimation approach to detect various flicker sources in a non- radial power
network is elaborated in Jalal Khodaparast et. al 2012 [14]. The benefit of implementing this
method is that, it utilizes decreased number of measuring devices. As measurement of current
is easy in non radial network as compared to voltage, hence instantaneous voltage is estimated
with the use of current as state variable. After this estimated voltage and measured current is
demodulated by using half wave rectifier in order to separate respective envelope. Then the
flicker power is obtained by multiplying the Discrete Fourier Transformed envelopes of voltage
and current. In order to detect the flicker source, the flicker power is tracked with respect to path

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of primary active power. For assigning the direction to the flicker source; sign of flicker power
with respect to primary active power is checked. When flicker power is positive then flicker
source is upstream relating to primary active power flow direction. The negative sign of flicker
power shows that flicker source is in downward direction with regard to primary active power
flow direction. This method correctly detects existence of several flicker sources but it doesn’t
give any idea about dominant flicker source. Figure 11 shows the block diagram of this
method [14].
Figure 11. Block diagram of state estimation method
3.11. D-Q transformation method for flicker phase angle detection
Jalal Khodaparast et.al 2012 [15] present a technique to detect all flicker tones based
upon estimation of phase angle of each flicker tone. Figure 12 shows block diagram of this
method [15]. For detecting the direction of flicker source, flicker power sign is used. For
calculating the flicker power accurately phase difference between flicker tones of voltage and
current is required because the flicker power is directly proportional to cosine of this phase
difference. The estimation of the phase difference between flicker tones of voltage and current
is done with the use of half wave rectifier and d-q transformation. A half wave rectifier technique
is used to track the flicker envelope. If main voltage is feeded to a half wave rectifier block then
flicker envelope appears separately. The obtained flicker envelope then tracked by using series
of low pass filters. This process is enhanced by d-q transformation. The matrix of d-q
transformation is given in Equation (8).
Figure 12. Block diagram of D-Q transformation method for flicker phase angle detection

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[ ] = [
( ) ( )
( ) ( )
] [ ] (8)
Equation (8) illustrates that the utility input voltages is converted to DC quantities in the
d-q reference frame. As a result any change in the utility input voltage will be reflected as
change in d-q values. By comparing direction of fundamental power flow to direction of flicker
power in each flicker tone, locations of all flicker sources are determined. If flicker power is
positive then flicker source is upstream and if it is negative then flicker source is downstream
with reference to fundamental power flow direction. The sign of flicker power depends on cosine
of phase angle between voltage and current of flicker tones. For phase angle from - to + the
flicker power is positive or else negative. Therefore for the specified range of phase angle the
flicker source is upstream otherwise it is downstream.
3.12. D-Q transformation Method for Flicker Magnitude Calculation
J. Khodaparast et. al 2012 [16-18] use d-q transformation and half wave rectifier to
identify all flicker tones that are present in utility voltage. But this paper focuses on calculation of
amplitude of each flicker tone rather than phase. Figure 13 shows block diagram of this
method [16].
Figure 13. Block diagram of D-Q transformation method for magnitude calculation
A polluting bus will have the largest magnitude of flicker tone as compared with other
buses. The amplitudes of flicker tones are considered as indices for detection of flicker sources.
With the aim of reduction of count of measuring point neural network approach is used. The
Neural Network is trained by using calculated amplitudes. The output of neural network is useful
in identification of flicker source.
3.13. Method based upon FFT demodulation
Jamaludin et. al 2013, 2014 [19-20] suggest an algorithm based upon Fast Fourier
Transform (FFT) to detect location of flicker source based upon flicker power as shown in
Figure 14. In Figure 14, mup(t) is filtered voltage signal and mip(t) is filtered current signal. FP(t)
is instantaneous flicker power, u(n) and i(n) are input voltage and current signals. The process
of calculation of flicker power involves multiplication of filtered voltage and current signals. The
basic requirement is to extract voltage and current envelope. This is carried out by
demodulating the sampled signal. Here for demodulation Fast Fourier Transform is used. The
demodulated voltage and current signals are then passed through a band pass filter. The
multiplication of mup(t) and mip(t) is done to get FP(t). Finally FP(t) is integrated over a period to
get the Flicker Power. If the sign of calculated flicker power is negative then flicker source is
downstream as for observing point. Furthermore, when sign is positive then flicker source is

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upstream. The ability of the FFT demodulation to demodulate flicker envelope without producing
new considerable low frequency improves the effectiveness of calculation of flicker power.
However this method does not give any trace about dominant flicker source.
Figure 14. FFT demodulation algorithm for flicker power calculation
3.14. Enhanced Phase Locked Loop method
Focus on detection of flicker source as well as on identification of dominant flicker
source is elaborated by Dejamkhooy et al. 2016 [21-23]. For detection of source flicker power
sign is considered. The calculation of flicker power is done by extracting voltage and current
envelope and then by integrating multiplication of envelopes over the period of flicker
occurrence. The extraction of envelope is done by Enhanced Phase Locked Loop. Figure 15
shows block diagram for this technique [21]. Where u(t) and i(t) are voltage and current inputs,
mv(t) and mi(t) are envelope signals of voltage and current signals and fp(t) is the instantaneous
flicker power. The average value of instantaneous flicker power is called as flicker power. The
detection of flicker source is done by considering sign of flicker power. If sign of flicker power is
positive the flicker source is above and negative sign indicates flicker source is below with
respect to monitoring point.
Figure 15. Block diagram of flicker detection by enhanced phase locked loop method
3.15. Jacobian Matrix Method
In Dejamkhooy et al. 2016 [21] the flicker power sign of flicker sources which are
operated at the same time in a non radial network is identified by using Jacobian Matrix given by
the Equation (9).

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[ ] (9)
where ΔV is voltage gradient and ΔIL is current gradient for network under consideration.
J is corresponding Jacobian matrix and ΔR is variation in load. For determining flicker power
sign relative variation of load voltages and load currents are calculated to form Jacobian Matrix.
It is concluded that flicker sources with same phase angles have negative flicker power. The
detection of flicker source is done by considering this sign. It is shown that if flicker power is
positive the flicker source is upstream as for observing point and if it is negative then flicker
source is downstream regarding monitoring point. To identify dominant flicker source directed
graph theory is introduced. A unique graph is introduced for this objective as shown in
Figure 16 [21] and Figure 17 [21] for a two bus system. In both figures direction of arc indicates
the flicker source. According to this theory power system buses act as vertices while
transmission lines act as edges or arcs, for the directed graph.
Figure 18. Directed graph of the arc between two vertices for positive flicker power
Figure 19. Directed graph of the arc between two vertices for negative flicker power
According to this theory a bus is said to be a dominant flicker source if every arc related to that
bus indicates that this bus is a flicker source.
4. Identification Based on DWT and ANN
The identification of flicker is carried out by combining DWT and ANN. The DWT is
basically used for extracting features of the signal while ANN is used for prediction of output in
order to recognize the flicker [24-25]. The block diagram of the method is shown in Figure 20.
Initially a voltage signal with flicker is given as input to first block. The DWT based feature
extraction is carried out by Wavelet Tool in Matlab Simulink. The features like standard
deviation, amplitude, mean absolute deviation, median absolute deviation and energy are
obtained by multi signal analysis [25]. These features are extracted for 20 different signals with

477
different magnitudes and frequencies. The signals considered for extracting features are within
the standard range of magnitude and frequency for the flicker i.e. magnitude varies from 0.9 p.u.
to 1.1 p.u. while frequency have range of 1 Hz to 30 Hz. These features are then passed to ANN
with the target values. The target values are the values for a standard 50 Hz signal with unity
magnitude.
Figure 20. Block diagram of DWT-ANN method for identification
Actual extracted features are normalized to per unit values so that the ANN can work
satisfactorily. Table 1 shows normalized values of the features extracted.
Table 1. Normalized Values for Extracted Features
Input Signal w ith
flicker (pu)
Amplitude
(positive Peak) (pu)
Standard
Deviation (pu)
Mean Absolute
Deviation(pu)
Median Absolute
Deviation(pu)
Energy
(pu)
f1 0.9991 0.7108 0.6382 0.704 0.9882
f2 0.9818 0.7095 0.6376 0.705 0.9475
f3 0.9545 0.7082 0.6370 0.7068 0.9001
f4 0.9727 0.7090 0.6374 0.7054 0.9346
f5 0.9273 0.7074 0.6386 0.7071 0.8727
f6 1.0000 0.7108 0.6382 0.705 0.9582
f7 0.9818 0.7095 0.6376 0.705 0.9157
f8 0.9545 0.7082 0.6370 0.7038 0.8750
f9 0.9727 0.7090 0.6374 0.7049 0.8910
f10 0.9909 0.7101 0.6379 0.7049 1.0000
f11 0.9455 0.7079 0.6368 0.7026 0.9058
f12 0.9545 0.7082 0.6370 0.7067 0.9202
f13 0.9627 0.7086 0.6372 0.7051 0.9361
f14 0.9727 0.7090 0.6374 0.7036 0.9356
f15 0.9782 0.7095 0.6376 0.7058 0.9499
f16 0.9900 0.7101 0.6379 0.7039 0.9521
f17 1.0000 0.7108 0.6382 0.7043 0.7580
f18 0.9900 0.7101 0.6379 0.7034 0.7658
f19 0.9809 0.7095 0.6376 0.7080 0.7742
f20 0.9827 0.7108 0.6382 0.7035 0.9695
Target 0.9091 0.7073 0.6366 0.7073 0.8636

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4.1. Validation of Proposed Method
The validity of proposed method is checked by using test data. For obtaining the test
data the flicker producing load selected is an arc furnace. The arc furnace model is simulated
using mathematical equations given in [26]. Figure 21 shows the diagram of the network with
load.
Figure 21. Simplified diagram of a network with load
The proposed algorithm is applied to the output for single phase. The similar features
are extracted. These features are the new inputs to the trained ANN. Table 2 shows the results
obtained.
Table 2. Results Obtained from Arc Furnace Model
Type
of Data
Amplitude
(positive Peak) (pu)
Standard
Deviation (pu)
Mean
Absolute Deviation (pu)
Median
Absolute Deviation (pu)
Energy
(pu)
Input 0.9273 0.627 0.494 0.747 1.3118
Output 0.9118 0.6366 0.6366 0.9079 0.9118
From Table 1 and Table 2, it is observed that the outputs with new data are well
matched with the targets. Therefore it is noteworthy to say that the new input to ANN has same
features as that of original training inputs which are flicker signals. Hence it can be said that the
test input resembles to the flicker signal.
5. Conclusion
A study regarding methods studied to identify flicker producing loads in accordance with
IEC 61000-4-15 has been presented in this paper. Various methods such as interharmonic
power direction method, slope method, reactive current component method, energy method and
flicker power method are used to detect direction of flicker source. Among these methods
interharmonic power direction method and flicker power method use sign of power to identify
flicker source. The negative sign indicated that the source location is downstream with respect
to measurement point while positive sign is for the source which is situated at upstream
direction. The slope method uses sign of slope characteristic. If slope has positive sign then
flicker source is from upstream while negative sign indicates flicker source is from downstream.
In energy method the positive sign of energy indicates upstream direction of source and for
negative sign source direction is downstream. Other methods use techniques like FFT, d-q
transformation and neural network to determine direction of flicker power. Also a technique for

479
detection of the flicker source has been proposed. The strategy used is a combination of the
discrete wavelet transform and the feed forward back propagation neural network. The DWT is
used primarily for extracting features of contaminated source voltage due to presence of the
voltage flicker. The ANN serves purpose of identification of the flicker source which causes the
distortion of the source voltage. The validation of the methodology presented is done in
MATLAB/Simulink environment. From the simulation results it is clear that the anticipated output
parameters are well converged with target assigned to ANN. Therefore the test signal is a flicker
signal and the source from which it is coming is a flicker source.
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