Method for RMS and power measurements based

on the wavelet acket transform

E.Y. Hamid, R. Mardiana and Z.4 Kawasaki

Abstract: The study provides the theoretical basis for the use of the wavelet packet transform
(WPT) method for RMS and power/energy measurements. The proposed method can
simultaneously measure the distribution of RMS quantities and power with respect to individual
frequency bands directly from the wavelet transform coefficients associated with the concurrent
voltage-current pair. Their dependent quantities such as power factor and total harmonic band
distortion can also be calculated. Uniform frequency bands result from the WPT decomposition of
power system waveforms and can be used for identification of bands of harmonics. The frequency
bands also retain both the time and frequency relationship of the origmal waveforms, whch is one
of the major benefits provided by this method. The method is evaluated by its application to both
simulated and actual power system waveforms.

1 Introduction with respect to individual bands contain a different number

The traditional methods for RMS voltage and current and
power/energy measurements have been performed both in
the time domain and in the frequency domain using the
well-known Fourier transform method. The time-domain
method is the most accurate and efficient when total RMS
and total power as well as power factor are concerned. The
frequency-domain method permits the measurement of the
RMS of individual frequency components and therefore
can provide the RMS of individual bands and determine
harmonic distortion. The frequency domain with Fourier
transform method suffers from nonstationary waveform
requirements (because the load waveforms are generally
dynamic in nature) and the loss of temporal resolution [l].
The wavelet transform has proven a powerful signal
processing tool for transient analysis [2, 31 and harmonic
analysis [ M I of power system waveforms. However,
there has not been much work on applying wavelets to
RMS and powerlenergy measurements. Wavelet analysis
for RMS and power measurement using the conventional
discrete wavelet transform (DWT) method was first
introduced in [7]. The advantage of using the wavelet
transform is that it preserves both the time and frequency
relationshp associated with the resulting RMS and power
values. However, the DWT technique is not suitable for
harmonic analysis because the resulting frequency bands do
not have the same width and the results do not give easy
insight into the time behaviour of the harmonics [8]. For
instance, at a lower level of decomposition (or higher time
resolution) the frequency band becomes wider and
covers more harmonic components than the band at a
higher level. Consequently the resulting RMS and power
of harmonic components. 'fie capability to provide
uniform bands is moreover important for harmonic
identification purposes. In faci , measurement of harmonic
distortion is frequently required to identify the source and
thus to eliminate its effects [4, 93. To overcome this
limitation a wavelet packet transform (WPT) method is
proposed. The method decomposes a given power system
waveform into a set of harmonic bands with the same
frequency width, and each of tlhe bands represents that part
of the original instantaneous RMS and power occurnng at
that particular time and in thatt particular frequency band.
This means that the method provides the distribution of
the RMS and power/energy with respect to individual
frequency bands.
2 Wavelet packet transform
2.1 Theory
While the mathematical background of the wavelet packet
transform can be found in [10- 121, a brief summary is given
in this Section. The WPT is a direct expansion of the
conventional DWT algorithm. In the WPT, both the
approximation space and the detail space are decomposed
to derive new lower resolution approximation spaces plus
detail spaces. Let d ( t ) and $(z)be the scaling function and
the corresponding mother wavelet function in the conven-
tional DWT, and define $'(t) = + ( t ) and $ ' ( t ) = $ ( t ) .
Using the well-known two-scale equations, we construct the
wavelet basis as follows:

0IEE, 2002
IEE Proceedings online no. 20020156
DOL 10.1049/ip-smt:20020156
Paper first received 21st June 2001 and in revised form 10th January 2002
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Graduate
School of Engineering, Osaka University, Yamadaoka 2-1, Suita, Osaka
565-0871, Japan
E.Y. Hamid and R. Mardiana are also with the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Institut Technologi, Bandung, Indonesia
(2)
where i is the node number, j is the level of decomposition,
and h(n) and g ( n ) = (-l)'-'h(l -rt) are a pair of
quadrature mirror filters (QMFs) [l 11. The wavelet trans-
form coefficients (WTCs) of a given function At) at the jth
level and kth point are computed via the following recursion

60 IEE Proc -&I Meus Techno1 Vol 149, No 2,March 2002

I
relations: the jth level, kth point and 2ith node is q2'(k),where
j = O , l , ...,N a n d i = O , l , ...,2J-'-1.ThisWTCisobtained
by convolving the sequence d;_,(k)with lowpass filter h(n),
and then downsampling by a factor of two (3). Similarly,
the WTC at (2i+ 1)th node, that is d/2L+1(k), is obtained by
convolving the sequence qLl(k)with highpass filter g(n) and
downsampling by a factor of two (4). Number of nodes at
The wavelet basis in (1) and (2) satisfy the following jth level is 2', and the node at level 0 is the original
properties [1@12] waveform.
The time resolution of d/"(k) (or dJ2'+'(k)) is half that of
d/!!l(k) (or 4!!T1(k)),owing to the downsampling. As a
result, if 4F1(k) (or dFT1(k))has 2N-Jt1 points (k=O,
'
1,. .. ,2N-J+ - 1) for the entire observation period, then
4"(k) (or dJ2'+ '(k)) will have 2N-J points (k = 0, 1,. . . ,
2N-J- 1) for the same observation period. Every node atjth
level has 2N-J points or WTCs.
2.3 Choice of wavelet filters
The selection of which wavelet to use for the measurement
is a formidable task. The accuracy of RMS and power
measurements depends on the frequency response of the
2.2 Decomposition selected wavelet filter. The frequency response (or the
Wavelet packet decomposition is depicted in Fig. 1. Let the spectrum) has to decrease faster near the filter band edges
original waveform have 2N sampling points. The WTC at [5, 7, 131. This will provide sharper cutoff frequency and
hence better frequency separation. Good frequency separa-
tion will reduce the amount of leakage energy to the
adjacent frequency bands. In general, the frequency
separation characteristic of the selected wavelet filter is
dependent on the number of filter coefficients (or the
number of vanishing moments). As the number of filter
coefficients increases, more accurate measurements can be
obtained [5, 131.
Instead of creating algorithms to select appropriate
wavelet filters (whch surely adds complexity to the main
problem), we utilise one type of wavelet filter in the whole
course of measurements for all voltage current pair
waveforms. The Vaidyanathan filter with 24 coefficients is
used in the analysis. The number of coefficients of this filter
Fig. 1 Wavelet packet decomposition with successivefiltering and is large enough and its frequency response shows good
downsampling frequency separation between lowpass and highpass spectra

*3

*4 *5
l-----l

u
0 10 20 0 10 20 0 10 20
Fig. 2 Wavelet packet hmwl computed with Vaidyanathanfilter up to level 3 ordered from low to high frequencies

IEE Proc -Sei Meas Technol,YQI I49 No 2 March 2002 61

 spectrum

low pass

By applying the wavelet propeirties in ( 5 ) , the equation can

a be simplified to

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 (7)

The (total) RMS of u(t), based on IEEE Std. 100-88 [14],

can be derived using (7),
I

0 pi12 Pi
normalised frequency
b

Fig. 3 Frequency response of Vaidyanathan QMFs and sub-band

response of wavelet Jilters
Numbers 0 to 7 are node or frequency band number
CIQMF
b 3-level decomposition
where

[lo]. Fig. 2 shows the wavelet functions computed with the

Vaidyanathan filter. Fig. 3 shows the frequency response of
the associated QMFs and the sub-band frequency response
of wavelet filters for three-level of decomposition. Here, is the RMS value of frequency band at node i and
levelj. The RMS of current Irm can be derived in similar
3 Wavelet representation of RMS value and power manner
I
3. I Wavelet representation of RMS value
Let u(t) and i(t) be the analogue voltage and current
waveforms, respectively, during the observation period T.
In practice the analogue waveforms are digitised. Here, u(n)
and i(n) will be the digitised waveforms of u(t) and i(t),
respectively, with n = 0,1,. ..,2N- 1. In the wavelet theory,
any time-domain waveform can be expanded as a linear
combination of weighted sums of wavelet basis functions
[10-121. Therefore u(t) can be represented as where
2J-I-1 2N-1-1

U(t) = Ei=O k=O

dY(k)$ji(t)

and 4*'(k) are the WTCs of i(n). (9) and (1 1) agree with
Parseval's theorem.

3.2 Wavelet representation of power

where 4'(k) are the scaling function coefficients and
d;(k)(i> 0) are the wavelet coefficients of u(n). Hereafter,
these scaling function coefficients and wavelet coefficients
are called the WTCs. The RMS of voltage V,, in a power
system can be derived from the WTCs at a certain levelj
using (6) as follows:
One usually uses wavelet analysis focused on a single
waveform (voltage or current only) [l-51. However, in the
case of active power measurement the concurrent voltage
and current waveforms are used together. If the WTCs of
u(t) and i(t) are scaled by the :same wavelet packet function
$(t), the energy is described as follows:
/ o(t)i(t)dt

J' u(t)2dt
= 1 rzl dy(k)4,,k(t) f
2 1 - 1 2N-J-1

1=1 k=O
d;(k)$J,k(t)
l2 dt

62 IEE Proc.-Sei. Meus. Technol., Vol. 149, No. 2, March 2002

 is easily seen if we analyse the waveforms for more than one
cycle.

4. I Simulated voltage and current

These voltage and current waveforms are periodic under
steady-state conditions as shown in Fig. 4. The waveforms

2, I

1
a,
m
by applying the wavelet properties in (5), the equation s o
-
9
becomes -1

-2 ' d

J r=n k=o I

The (total) active power P, based on IEEE Std. 100-88 [14], 1

in the wavelet domain using (1 2) becomes I

i o
3

-1
I
0 33.3 66.7 100.0 133.3
time, ms

Fig. 4 Simulated voltuge and current wuveforms

where
contain lst, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th harmonics
(odd integer harmonics). The values of magnitude and
phase of waveforms are arbitrary. The simulated waveforms
are as follows:
<
Here, is the power value of frequency band at node i and
level j . Again, (14) agrees with Parseval's theorem.
o(t) = Ax +
[1.0 sin (271601) + 0.2 sin (2n180t 135")
+
+ 0.2 sin (2x300t 150')
3.3 Power factor and total harmonic band + + +
0.1 sin(2x420t 140") 0.08 sin(2~~540t+40")
distortion
It is also possible to calculate power factor and total +
+ 0.1 sin (2z660t 15")
harmonic band distortion (THBD) directly using the +
+ 0.1 sin(2~780t lSO")]
WTCs. The wavelet packet transform cannot extract any
single frequency component; rather, the transform brings a
frequency band around the frequency of interest. Hence, we
i(t) ==a
x [1.0 sin (2z60tf lo") +0.1 sin (2z180t+ 150")

put the word 'band' in the THBD. The power factor is
defined as the ratio of active power to apparent power. It
can be calculated using (9), (11) and (14)
The THBD is defined as the ratio of the RMS value of the
frequency bands at nodes i>O to the RMS value of the
original distorted waveform. The THBD of voltage and
current is
4 Evaluation and results
To evaluate the accuracy of RMS and power measurements
using the proposed method, two examples are analysed.
The first is software-generated waveforms and the second
uses actual power system waveforms. Each waveform has
eight 60Hz fundamental cycles with 1024 ( N = 10) sampling
points during the observation period.T= 8/60 s. It is also
possible to use only one cycle of fundamental frequency for
. the measurements, however, the timefrequency localisation
IEE Proc.-Sci. Meus. Technol., Vol. 149, No. 2, Murch 2002
+ 0.08 sin (2x300~+ 135")
+ 0.08 sin(27c420t-22.5") +0.09 sin(2n540t+2O0)
+ 0.07 sin (2x660~+ 45")
+ 0.08 sin(2x780t + 120")]
Both waveforms are first decomposed up to fifth level as
described in Section 2. Only the WTCs at level j = 5 are
used to calculate the RMS and power because each
frequency band (or each node) at level 5 completely covers
a respective odd harmonic Component. Fig. 5 shows the
WTCs of voltage, current, and power at the selected nodes
or bands. Level 5 has 25 = 32 nodes and each node has
210-5 -
-32 WTCs. The Figure demonstrates the time and
frequency relationship, and it can be recognised that
harmonics of both voltage and current as well as the power
are stationary. Node 0 includes the fundamental frequency
component, and the other nodes include the hgher
frequency components.
The RMS values of voltage and current of each node are
computed from their WTCs at each node using (9) and (1 I),
respectively. The square root of the sum of RMS values in
all nodes yields the total RMS value of voltage or current.
The WTCs of power are the products of the WTCs of
voltage and current registered at the same node and time, as
given in (12). The power can be calculated using (14), and
the energy during the observation period is the power
multiplied by the observation period T.
63
 voltage current power

1 # . ! #
0 33:3 667 1000 1333 0 3 3 3 667 1000 1333 0 3 3 3 667 1OOCI 1333
time, ms
.a b C

Fig. 5 Wavelet ‘transform coefficients of simulated data for thejirst seven nodes
Ratio of a o d e b and ‘other nodes is -1 5, 1 5, and 1 20 for voltage, current, and power, respectively
a Voltage
b Current
c Power

since the filter pairs have spectral over1

[I, 5, 7, 131. Table 2 sho
voltage and current. T ~ I
closely match the anal lculation results.

Table 2: Power factor and THDB for simulated data

True WPT

Power factor 0.9564 0.9564

THBDv(%) 32.2E99
THBDi(%)

Table 1: Comparison results between true (analytical) anti WPT values for simulated data

%Node Band Band odd True WPT

) harmonics
VRMS ~RMS Power ‘~RMS IRMS Power

2 240 360-
3 360 480-

8 -
960 1080
Total

64 IEE ‘Pro<-Sli Meas TechnoY, Vol 149,No 2, Murch 2002

4.2 Test on actual waveform data Table 3 compares results of the fast Fourier transform
Fig. 6 shows concurrent voltage and current waveforms (FFT) values with those of the WPT method. Power at each
recorded at a low-voltage panel (1OOV) which was frequency of the FFT method can be computed based on
supplying several personal computers and other electronic magnitudes and angles resulting from the FFT analysis of
devices in our laboratory. The bottom panel in this Figure is voltage and current data. The Table shows that the RMS
the power waveform, i.e. the product of the o(t) and i(t) and power values of each band obtained by the two
pairs. methods differ only slightly. The total results of RMS and
power of the proposed method are almost the same in all
cases. However, the relative errors indicate that the
proposed approach provides the same total RMS and total
power values as the time-domain reference under the
precision cited, meanwhile the F F T method provides small
errors. Here the relative errors indicate the difference
between the results of each technique and the results of
time-domain calculation (the time-domain results are set as
the reference).The total RMS of voltage and current in time
domain is calculated using (8) and (lo), respectively, while
the total power in time domain is calculated using (13).
From Table 3 and also Fig. 7 it can be seen that the power
1000 I
(or energy) is concentrated mainly at nodes 1 and 2,
3 800 corresponding to the band DC-240 Hz, and only very small
600 power results at the higher bands. Table4 shows that the
400
5 200 power factor and THBD values of the FFT and the WPT
-200 '
0 33 3 66.7 100.0
I
133.3
methods are similar for this example.
time, ms
5 Conclusions
Fig. 6 Voltage and current waveforms sumpledfrom real system
The WPT method for RMS and power/energy measure-
Fig. 7 shows the WTCs of voltage, current, and power at ments has been proposed and demonstrated. The evaluation
the first nine nodes of interest. The rest of the nodes have was performed on simulated and actuql voltage current pair
very small or zero-coefficient amplitudes. T h s Figure waveforms. Simulated data was used in the evaluation so
demonstrates the wavelet property of timefrequency the RMS and power values of each frequency band and
localisation. The temporal variation of the WTCs of power also the total RMS and total power values could be
is correlated to the amplitude fluctuation of the WTCs of compared with those obtained from the analytical calcula-
voltageecurrent pair. tion. Actual power system data was used to evaluate the

- current power

ti
^ .
--. .-_ -

I . . .. . .I.

u
0 33.3 66.7 100.0 133.3 0 33.3 667 100.01333 0 33.3 66.7 100.0 133.3
time, ms
a b C

Fig. 7 Wavelet trunsform coefficients of actual datu (Fig 6 ) forjirrt nine nodes
Ratio of node 0 and other nodes is 1 :20, 1 ' 2 , and 1 : 20 for voltage, current, and power, respectively.
n Voltage
b Current
c Power

IEE Proc.-Sci. Meus. Technol.,Vol. 149, No. 2.March 2002 65

Table 3: Comparison results between F I T and WPT values for actual data
Node Band Band odd True WPT
(Hz) harmonics
VRMS IRMS Power VRMS IRMS Power

0 DC-120 1st 97.685 2.827 275.879 97.685 2.826 275.887

1 120- 240 3rd 4.825 1.636 -7.477 4.817 1.644 -7.553
2 240-360 5th 2.418 0.370 -0.884 2.421 0.363 -0.876
3 -
360 480 7th 0.939 0.193 0.130 0.91 1 0.194 0.104
4 -
480 600 9th 0.302 0.202 -0.031 0.315 0.201 -0.027
5 -
600 720 1I t h 0.61 1 0.070 -0.036 0.601 0.073 -0.038
6 -
720 840 13th 0.376 0.076 0.015 0.368 0.077 0.014
7 -
840 960 15th 0.319 0.088 -0.014 0.264 0.087 -0.010
8 960- 1080 17th 0.303 0.029 0.000 0.362 0.033 0.005
Total 97.850 3.302 267.512 97.849 3.301 267.597
Error(%) -0.000386 -0.024575 0.031666 0.000000 0.000000 0.000000

T h e unit of voltage, current, a n d power is respectively volt, ampere, a n d watt

Table 4: Power factor and THDB for actual data 7 References

FFT WPT 1 DRIESEN, J., CRAENENBROECK, T.V., BELMANS, R., and

Power factor 0.8279 0.8284
THBDv(%) 5.8186 5.7908
THBDi(%) 51.7046 51.7222
feasibility of t h s method in the real application, and the
measurement results are compared with those obtained
from the FFT method. The results of this WPT method can
be summarised as follows.
The RMS and power values of each frequency band
derived from concurrent voltage and current data can be
measured accurately under the precision cited. In the case of
using simulated data for stationary waveforms, the results
closely match those from the analytical calculation. In the
case of using actual data, the results closely match those
from the FFT calculation.
Unlike the FFT method, the WPT method provides total
RMS and total power which have the same values as the
results from the time-domain method.
Besides demonstrating the distribution of RMS and
power with respect to individual frequency bands, the bands
also retain both the time and frequency relationship of the
original instantaneous RMS and power.
6 Acknowledgments
This study was supported in part by The Kansai Electric
Power CO., Japan. Thanks to Hirotaka Yoshida and
Hirosuke Doi (Kansai Electric Instrument Co.) for their
discussions.
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