CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution
Paper 0430
AN ESPRIT AND DFT-BASED NEW METHOD FOR THE WAVEFORM DISTORTION
ASSESSMENT IN POWER SYSTEMS
Antonio BRACALE
University Parthenope of Naples – Italy
antonio.bracale@uniparthenope.it
ABSTRACT
Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) is recommended for
waveform distortion assessment in IEC Standard
framework. One of the most important problems for DFT
application is the spectral leakage. It was shown in the
literature that the most remarkable errors due to leakage
problems in power system waveform assessment are mainly
due to the errors in synchronizing fundamental and
harmonics. In this paper, a new two-steps signal processing
technique based on ESPRIT and DFT methods is proposed.
This technique guarantees a fast and accurate
synchronization of fundamental and harmonics; it also
allows to obtain an accurate evaluation of the low
frequency interharmonics. The proposed method is applied
on test waveforms in order to demonstrate its effectiveness
in terms of reduced computational efforts and accuracy of
the results.
. (i)), a new two-steps method is proposed.
INTRODUCTION
The diffusion of susceptible loads in power systems
requires an accurate control of the Power Quality
disturbances to avoid dangerous effects. Among
disturbances, waveform distortions play a fundamental role
due to the widespread use of power static converters in
electrical transmission and distribution systems. As well
known, the waveform distortions are synthetically described
by indices that require a careful assessment of the waveform
spectral components (harmonics and interharmonics),
whose values can vary with time both in amplitude and
frequency.
Several international Standards and Recommendations
contain indices to characterize the waveform distortions in
power systems and methods of measurements and
interpretation of results. In particular, IEC Standards
introduce the specified signal processing recommendations
and definitions, and uses the DFT performed over a time
window (rectangular) of exactly ten cycles (for 50 Hz
systems) or twelve cycles (for 60 Hz systems) of the
fundamental period to obtain spectral components [1-2].
However, difficulties can arise; for example, the time
window length must be exactly an integer multiple of the
Fourier fundamental period to avoid spectral leakage
problems (synchronization condition).
The DFT spectral leakage problems arise in power systems
due primarily to two problems: (i) the errors in
synchronizing fundamental and harmonics due to the
deviations of fundamental frequency and (ii) the presence of
non-synchronized interharmonics. It was shown in literature
that the problem (i) causes the most remarkable errors,
CIRED2009 Session 2 Paper No 0430
Prague, 8-11 June 2009
Guido CARPINELLI
University of Naples Federico II – Italy
guido.carpinelli@unina.it
while the desynchronization of interharmonics may give
minor effects [3]. In order to solve problem (i), a direct
approach for obtaining synchronization is to use analogical
Phase Locked Loop. Other desynchronization reasons are
related to the instrumentation adopted. For instance, the
frequency resolution of the sampling clock is finite and,
therefore, it may be difficult from a practical perspective to
synchronize the clock with the fundamental frequency
value, even when it is stable. In addition, desynchronization
problem can arise in presence of time-varying waveforms.
In the relevant literature, several methods have been
proposed to reduce inaccuracies in waveform distortion
assessment such as DFT-based methods (i.e. Hanning
Windowing and Result Interpolation) and parametric high-
resolution methods (i.e. Prony’s method, ESPRIT and root-
MUSIC methods). These last techniques can remarkably
reduce the inaccuracies caused by spectral leakage, but
require computational efforts greater than the ones required
by DFT-based methods [4, 5].
In this paper, in order to guarantee high accuracy in
synchronizing fundamental and harmonics (above problem
The proposed method is based on the successive application
of ESPRIT and DFT methods and requires a faster
computation time compared to parametric high-resolution
methods. In particular, in the first step, after the application
of a low-pass filter, the estimation of the fundamental
frequency is effected using the ESPRIT method. The
ESPRIT method is a parametric high resolution method that
uses a signal model to approximate the waveform; it is
based on naturally existing shift invariance between the
discrete time series [6, 7]. In this first step, the ESPRIT
method can also allow to obtain an accurate estimation of
the low frequency interharmonics present in the signal.
In the second step, the DFT is applied with a more accurate
windowing process, thanks to the accurate knowledge of the
fundamental period obtained in the first step.
The paper is organized as follows: firstly the ESPRIT
method is briefly recalled, then the new ESPRIT-DFT
method is presented; finally, the proposed approach is
applied to some test waveforms in order to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the procedure in terms of reduced
computational efforts and accuracy of the results.
PROPOSED METHOD
In this Section, the ESPRIT method is briefly recalled [6],
and the new proposed approach is presented.
ESPRIT method
The original Estimation of Signal Parameters by Rotational
Invariance Technique (ESPRIT) method [6] is based on the
naturally existing shift invariance between the discrete time
series, which leads to rotational invariance between the
CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Prague, 8-11 June 2009

Paper 0430

corresponding signal subspaces. linked to the frequency resolution of the spectrum [4, 5];
The method assumes a signal model that includes the sum moreover, it is important to note that the computational
of complex conjugated exponentials in the background burden increases with the number N of the signal samples
noise. In particular, if we consider the signal samples x(n) and the number M of exponentials present in the model1 (1).
with n=0,1,…N-1, they are approximated with the
following linear combination of M complex exponentials: NEW ESPRIT-DFT method
M As well known, in DFT analysis the time window length
x̂ (n ) = ∑ h k e (kα k + j2 πf k ) n + r (n ) , n = 0,1,…N-1 (1) must be exactly an integer multiple of the fundamental
k =1 period to avoid spectral leakage problems; also a small error
where h k = A k e jψ k , A k and ψ k are the amplitude and the in synchronization can cause severe inaccuracies in spectral
components calculation.
initial phase, f k is the frequency and α k is the damping
In this paper, a new two-steps method is proposed in order
factor of the kth exponential and where r (n ) represents to solve the leakage problems caused by the errors in
additive noise. synchronizing fundamental and harmonics due to the
Starting from the model in (1) and considering a block of N1 deviations of fundamental frequency. This method is based
< N samples, the result is: on a two-step procedure that requires the successive
x( n ) = VΦ n H + r ( n ) , (2) application of ESPRIT and DFT methods and guarantees
where: high accuracy in synchronizing fundamental and harmonics
with fast computational time.
x(n ) = [x (n ) x (n + 1) ... x (n + N1 − 1)]T
In particular, in the first step the ESPRIT method is applied
⎡ 1 1 L 1 ⎤
⎢ e α1 + j2πf1 ⎥ for estimating the fundamental period of the signal. To
e α 2 + j2πf 2 L e α M + j2 πf M
V=⎢ ⎥ reduce the computational burden, the original waveform is
⎢ M M O M ⎥ low-pass filtered and down-sampled, so that the ESPRIT
⎢ (α1 + j2πf1 )( N1 −1) ⎥
⎣ e e (α 2 + j2πf 2 )( N1 −1) L e (α M + j2 πf M )( N1 −1) ⎦ . method is applied to a limited number of exponentials M
H = [h 1 h2 ... h M ]T and a limited number of signal samples N. In this first step,
⎡e (α1 + j2 πf1 ) 0 L 0 ⎤ the ESPRIT method is also used to obtain an accurate
⎢ ( α 2 + j2 πf 2 ) ⎥ estimation of the low frequency interharmonics (if present)
L
Φ=⎢ ⎥
0 e 0
⎢ ⎥ in the signal.
M M O M
⎢ ( α M + j2 πf M )
⎥ In the second step, the DFT is applied; a time window
⎣⎢ 0 0 L e ⎦⎥ exactly ten cycles (for 50 Hz systems) or twelve cycles (for
r (n ) = [r (n ) r (n + 1) ... r (n + N1 − 1)]T 60 Hz systems) of the fundamental period is used. The
The matrix Φ in (2) contains all information about the reduction of DFT spectral leakage problems is guaranteed in
damping factors and frequencies of M components. Using this step by the accurate knowledge of the fundamental
the vector of N1 signal samples, an estimation of the period obtained in the first step. It should be noted that, in
autocorrelation matrix R̂ x can be obtained. Rotational order to further improve the results of DFT analysis, the low
frequency interharmonics (if present) are subtracted from the
invariance theory shows that the calculation of the rotation
original signal before the DFT analysis. Fig. 1 shows a
matrix Φ is equivalent to the calculation of the matrix Ψ flowchart of the proposed method; the two steps are detailed
that satisfies the following equation: in the following.
S 2 = S1Ψ . (3) First Step
where S1 and S 2 are two suitable matrix [6, 7]. The following procedure is applied:
One of the most common method applied to estimate the (i) select a starting time window of analysis and apply a
matrix Ψ is the total least-squares (TLS) approach (TLS- low-pass filter (LPF) to the signal x(n) (for example
ESPRIT) which uses an estimation of the matrices S1 and with band [0, 100] Hz);
(ii) apply a down-sampling to the low-pass filtered
S 2 to find an estimation of Ψ using the following waveform obtained in (i) (note that only low
relationship: frequency spectral components are present in the low-
ˆ = (Sˆ ∗Sˆ ) −1 Sˆ ∗Sˆ .
Ψ (4) pass filtered signal);
1 1 1 2
Frequencies and damping factors can be calculated by (iii) apply ESPRIT method to the low-pass filtered and
means of simple relationships from the knowledge of the down-sampled waveform obtained in (ii) to estimate
the fundamental period and then the time window Tw
eigenvalues of matrix Ψ̂ . Amplitudes and initial phases of (equal exactly to ten or twelve cycles of the
the components can be found by properly be found by fundamental period). If interharmonics are present,
solving a second set of linear equations [7].
It should be noted that ESPRIT method is particularly
suitable for the frequency estimation and permits a very 1 It has been shown that the best choice for M in power
accurate estimation since the time window length is not system applications relies in using the MDL Method [8].

CIRED2009 Session 2 Paper No 0430

CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Prague, 8-11 June 2009

Paper 0430

estimate also their frequencies, amplitudes and initial
phases in order to evaluate the low frequency
interharmonic contribution in the time domain xih(n).
Second Step
The following procedure is applied:
(iv) if low frequency interharmonics are present, subtract
their contribution xih(n) to the original waveform in
the time domain, so obtaining the signal x’(n);
(v) apply DFT method to the waveform x’(n) obtained in
(iv) using the synchronized time window Tw obtained
in (iii).
Signal samples x(n)
First Step
LPF
spectral components present in signal are reported.
From the analysis of the Figs. 2, it clearly appears the
reduced spectral leakage problem obtained by using the
proposed ESPRIT-DFT approach. Table I results analysis
shows that the errors of IEC reach the value of about -11%
for the 13th harmonic component which is the spectral
component characterized by the highest spectral leakage
due to desynchronization. The error is highly reduced (more
than one order of magnitude) by using the ESPRIT-DFT
method and it does not reach 0.3 %. Moreover, it should be
noted that the frequency error of the IEC method is -0.18%;
the error is reduced of one order of magnitude by using the
ESPRIT-DFT method.

ESPRIT analysis

x(n)
Fundamental frequency
Interharmonics and time window width
estimation
(a)
estimation

xih (n) Second Step

x’(n)=x(n)-xih (n)
Tw
x’(n)

DFT analysis

Fig. 1 Flowchart of the proposed method

(b)
NUMERICAL EXPERIMENTS Fig. 2 Case study 1: spectra of the signal applying IEC (a)
and ESPRIT-DFT methods (b)
Several numerical experiments were performed; in this
Section, for sake of brevity, reference is made only to the Table I
results of two case-studies. Case study 1: spectral components magnitudes errors
The examples were performed by utilizing the IEC obtained applying IEC and ESPRIT-DFT methods
approach (IEC) characterised by a rectangular window Magnitude error [%]
(RW) and TW=200.00 ms [1, 2] and the proposed ESPRIT- Tones h5 h7 h11 h13
DFT method. The sampling frequency for all the IEC -2.53 -4.34 -7.19 -10.97
experiments and all the methods is 5 kHz while the low- ESPRIT-DFT 0.14 0.20 0.10 0.26
pass filter used has a bandwidth equal to [0, 100] Hz.
Let us consider now the same signal, but with the
Case study 1 fundamental frequency of 50.03 Hz2. Table II reports the
The signal considered consists of a spectral component of same quantities of Table I and confirms the effectiveness of
amplitude 1 p.u. at the fundamental frequency of 50.09 Hz. the proposed method.
This choice introduces a desynchronization in the IEC Case study 2
method application, since the window width adopted for
this method is equal to 200.00 ms. The waveform also The waveform of case-study 2 has the same components as
includes harmonics, in particular 5th, 7th, 11th and 13th case-study 1 with added two interharmonics ih1 and ih2 of
harmonic order tones, of amplitude 0.04 p.u., 0.03 p.u., 0.02 amplitude 0.002 p.u. at frequencies of 37 Hz and 63 Hz.
p.u. and 0.02 p.u. respectively. Figs 3 show the spectrum of the signal applying IEC
Figs 2 show the spectrum of the signal applying IEC method (Fig. 3 a) and ESPRIT-DFT method (Fig. 3 b). In
method (Fig. 2 a) and ESPRIT-DFT method (Fig. 2 b). In
Table I the results in terms of magnitude errors (in %) of the 2 Such desynchronization results are comparable with the
accuracy of IEC instruments of Class A.

CIRED2009 Session 2 Paper No 0430

 CIRED 20th International Conference on Electricity Distribution Prague, 8-11 June 2009

Paper 0430

Table III the results in terms of spectral components

magnitude errors (in %) are reported. Table II
From the analysis of the Fig. 3 a), it clearly appears that the
spectral leakage does not allow a correct identification of Case study 1: spectral components magnitudes errors
both interarmonics. On the other hand, Fig. 3 b) shows that obtained applying IEC and ESPRIT-DFT methods
the ESPRIT-DFT method reduces the spectral leakage Magnitude error [%]
problems and then allows an accurate estimation of the Tones h5 h7 h11 h13
fundamental and interharmonics spectral components. IEC -0.67 -1.09 -1.39 -2.31
Table III shows that the errors of IEC method on harmonic ESPRIT-DFT -0.09 -0.20 -0.19 -0.35
assessment are similar to case-study 1 while the errors reach
the value of about 358% for the interharmonic at frequency
of 63 Hz; this interharmonic is the one most influenced by
the spectral leakage due to desynchronization of
fundamental component. Noted that, since DFT spectrum in
IEC method is characterized by a frequency resolution of 5
Hz the interharmonics are estimated using the spectral
components at 35 Hz and 65 Hz.
Using the ESPRIT-DFT method the errors are once again
highly reduced for harmonics (more than one order of
magnitude) and are negligible for interharmonics.
Finally, it should be noted that the frequency error of (a)
interharmonics caused by the IEC method application
reaches a value of about 5% while the ESPRIT-DFT
method guarantees a negligible error thanks to the
application of ESPRIT method in the First Step of proposed
procedure.

CONCLUSIONS
IEC Standards introduce the specified signal processing
recommendations and definitions and utilizes DFT for (b)
waveform distortion assessment in power system. One of Fig. 3 Case study 2: spectrum of the signal applying IEC
the main problems for DFT waveform analysis is how to (a) and the ESPRIT-DFT (b) methods
reduce the effects of spectral leakage due to fundamental
frequency desychronization. In this paper, a new two-steps
method based on ESPRIT and DFT methods is proposed in Table III
order to guarantee high accuracy in synchronizing Spectral components magnitude errors obtained applying
fundamental and harmonics together with a fast IEC and ESPRIT-DFT methods
computation time. Magnitudes error [%]
The main outcomes of the paper are that: a) IEC Standards Tones h5 h7 h11 h13 ih1 ih2
suffer inaccuracy problems in case of fundamental and IEC -2.54 -4.34 -7.20 -10.98 311.74 358.50
harmonic desynchronization within the time window width; ESPRIT-DFT 0.12 0.19 0.09 0.19 0.00 -0.00
b) ESPRIT-DFT method reduces the inaccuracies caused by
the spectral leakage together with a faster computation time
(compared to parametric high-resolution methods). [5] A. Bracale, G. Carpinelli, Z. Leonowicz, T. Lobos, J. Rezmer:
“Measurement of IEC Groups and Subgroups using Advanced
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CIRED2009 Session 2 Paper No 0430