Classification of the Status of the Voltage Supply in
Induction Motors Using Support Vector Machines
Ramón Pérez Alexander Aguila
Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Universidad Politécnica Salesiana Universidad Politécnica Salesiana
Quito-Ecuador Quito-Ecuador
rperezp@ups.edu.ec aaguila@ups.edu.ec
Abstract— Induction motors represent a mainstay in the
industry. Its optimum performance is related to the quality of
electrical supply. In this sense, when there are variations in the
quality of electricity supply, the induction motor can operate in
conditions that can affect its performance and shorten its life. In
this paper we propose a monitoring of the voltage condition of the
supply voltage in induction motors, through a classification using
Support Vector Machines (SVM) to detect and classify these events.
The necessary data for defining the events associated with the
supply voltage are obtained with the use of ATP software,
simulating these different conditions in a low voltage motor and the
event classification is carried out with the use of SVM. With the use
of this mathematical tool, defined areas of disturbs in the voltage
will be established from measurements obtained in the simulation
of each of the events, which are considered as perturbations in
voltage, such as: overvoltage, undervoltage, voltage unbalance,
distortion of the voltage wave , voltage sags and simultaneous
combinations of some of these events. Assigning tags to each type of
disturbance or disturbance combinations allows us to detect and
classify the condition of energy supply in induction motors through
the SVM. The results show perfect accuracy in the classification of
events in the condition of voltage supply of the induction motor,
which represents an alternative to the monitoring of these machines
in the industry.
Index Terms— power quality; induction motor; support vector
machines; classification of disturbances; stability and reliability of
operation.
I. INTRODUCTION
T hree phase induction motors represent an important
component in the industry, having more than 90% of
application in electric drive systems. Their performance is
affected by the deviations of the voltage supply or power
quality [1]. Deviations from the supply voltage cause adverse
effects on the operation of the induction motor , such as higher
levels of energy loss and therefore a temperature of the
windings above their thermal limits, affecting over time the
mechanical and isolation characteristics, limiting their
capacity and performance and shortening the motor life [2].
When the source of supply presents voltage imbalances, or
voltages above or below the standardized limits for stable
operation range of the machine, there may be temperature
increases greater than the nominal of the motor reducing its
useful life [3]. The distortion of the voltage wave also causes
increases in the motor core losses, caused by a higher
saturation of the magnetic paths and in the windings due to the
978-1-5090-2157-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Carmen Vásquez
Department of Electrical Engineering
UNEXPO
Barquisimeto-Venezuela
cvasquez@unexpo.edu.ve
increase of the current, which results in motor temperature
increases [4]. The short-term events also affect the functioning
of these machines. When a voltage sag appears at the
terminals of the induction motor, the torque and the speed
diminish below their nominal values. When the voltage sag is
removed, it excessively increases the current absorbed by the
motor of the supply source, causing new voltage sags that can
affect sensitive equipment, like the ones used for its control
system [5].
The classification of the status of the voltage supply of the
induction motor can significantly improve its functioning,
extending its useful life, ensuring greater continuity and
quality of its operation. In [6] a control methodology for
classifying the condition of the supply voltage in electrical
machines based on the Radial Basis Function (RBF) of the
neural networks is presented. The disturbances detected and
classified are overvoltage, undervoltage, voltage unbalance
and distortion of the voltage wave. In [7] an investigation
concerning the classification of causes of voltage sags in
distribution systems, using SVM, is carried out. The
characteristics for the input of SVM were obtained by using
the wavelet transform and the output is the classification of
cause of the voltage dip.
In this paper we propose the classification of the status of
the voltage supply in induction motors using SVM. The
events considered are: temporary overvoltage and
undervoltage, voltage unbalance, voltage sags, harmonics and
some of their simultaneous combinations. For the
classification of the deviations produced in the voltage supply
in induction motors, a classification model of the condition of
the voltage supply of the machine using the SVM is proposed.
This tool allows defining status conditions for each of the
variables to be analyzed from a sample data assigned to each.
The SVM will allow monitoring the motor operating state and
if there are some variations of the voltage parameters defined
as normal, the tool will be capable of classifying the unwanted
condition, providing useful information for correcting these
events.
II. POWER QUALITY AND SVM
A. Power Quality
The problems introduced by the deviations of the voltage
waves and the current in industrial systems in the 80s
originated the concept of power quality (PQ). The PQ
considers deviation the difference that may exist between 𝑛=∞
𝑉𝑛2
these signals and the ones considered as ideal, which allow the 𝐻𝑉𝐹 = √ ∑ (2)
proper functioning of the equipment and ensure its useful life. 𝑛
𝑛=5
The effects of deviations of the voltage wave in induction
motors are diverse and they can cause deterioration of the Where: 𝑛 is the order of odd harmonic, not including those
insulation and mechanical wear and increase of the energy divisible by three and 𝑉𝑛 is the per-unit magnitude of the
losses [8]. voltage at the 𝑛𝑡ℎ harmonic frequency.
The voltage sags are mainly due to failures in the electric
systems and the starting of big electrical machines [5]. In this
sense, they are classified into seven (7) types; from A to G.
Types A refer to the symmetrical three-phase sags.
The overvoltage and undervoltage are caused by problems
in regulation of voltage supply or by temporary faults and they
can cause reduction of the useful life of the induction motor.
The nature of the unbalance includes unequal voltage
magnitudes at the fundamental system frequency
(undervoltages and overvoltages), fundamental phase angle
deviationn, and unequal levels of harmonic distortion between
the phases [9]. The unbalanced voltage in percent may be Figure 2. Derating Curve for Harmonic Voltages [8].
defined as (1). Due to these effects, the ANSI/NEMA MG-
B. SVM
1[8] recommends a derating factor for the case of motors
operating under conditions of anticipated voltage unbalance, The SVM use the concept of support vector to construct an
as shown in figure 1. Optimum Separating Hyperplane (OSH) for pattern
recognition, maximizing the margin between classes. The
100 ∗ 𝑀𝑉𝐷 OSH separates the training data into two groups, which have
𝑃𝑉𝑈 = (1)
𝐴𝑉 their own label and ∈ {+1, −1} such that the distance between
OSH and the closest training pattern be maximum, with the
Where: PVU is Percent Voltage Unbalance (%), MVD is intention of forcing the generalization of the learning machine
Maximum Voltage Deviation from average voltage and AV is [10]. If we consider the problem of separating the set of
Average Voltage. training vectors, belonging to two separate classes, as shown
in (3).

𝐷 = {(𝑥1 , 𝑦 1 ), (𝑥 2 , 𝑦 2 ). , (𝑥 𝑙 , 𝑦 𝑙 )} 𝑥 ∈ ℜ𝑛 , 𝑦 ∈ {−1,1} (3)

With a hyperplane denoted by (4)

𝑔(𝑥⃗) = (𝑤
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥⃗) + 𝑏 = 0 (4)
The training vectors are optimally separated by a
hyperplane if the distance between the closest vector to the
hyperplane is maximized. Figure 3 shows the variables
Figure 1. Medium motor derating factor due to unbalanced voltage [8] involved in the equation of the hyperplane and the margin that
we want to maximize.
The present harmonics will increase the electrical losses
𝑷+𝟏
which, in turn, decrease efficiency. This increase in losses will OSH
Class 1
also result in an increase in motor temperature, which further 𝑋1 𝑷−𝟏
reduces efficiency. For motors, the Voltage Harmonics Factor
(HVF) is defined by (2) and it is used to determine the
derating to be applied for motors operating under the presence 𝑊
of harmonics. The derating factor for harmonic is shown in
figure 2. Unlike the recognized Total Distortions Harmonic 𝑏
Voltage (TDHV), the HVF does not include in its 𝑊 Margin
determination harmonics of third order, because they are of
Class 2
zero sequence.
Origin 𝑋2
Figure 3. Hyperplane that separates the data correctly.

978-1-5090-2157-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

 The equation of planes parallel to OSH are denoted by (5) For the case of nonlinear SVM, it is necessary to map the
and (6) input space to a space of representation of a greater dimension,
𝑃+1 = (𝑤⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗)
𝑖 + 𝑏 = +1 (5) through a nonlinear function chosen by convenience, which
allows to handle a linear separation. This function is known as
𝑃−1 = (𝑤
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗)
𝑖 + 𝑏 = −1 (6)
kernel and between the main ones we find the linear, Radial
Basis Function (RBF), the polynomial and the sigmoid. In
The margin is 2⁄ 𝑤 , defined as the perpendicular distance Table I, we find the four (4) types of kernels most used.
between (5) and (6). The distance from the OSH to the origin TABLE I. MOST USED KERNEL FUNCTIONS.
is 𝑏⁄ 𝑤 . To maximize the margin, it is necessary to
minimize (7) subject to the constraint (8) Kernel Function
Linear 𝐾(𝑿𝑖 , 𝑿𝑗 ) = 𝑿𝑇𝑖 𝑿𝑗
𝑚𝑖𝑛 1 (7)
(𝑤
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑤
⃗⃗⃗) 2
𝑤 2 RBF 𝐾(𝑿𝑖 , 𝑿𝑗 ) = exp (−𝛾‖𝑿𝑖 − 𝑿𝑗 ‖ ) , 𝛾 > 0
𝑦𝑖 (𝑤
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑖 + 𝑏) ≥ 1 , ∀𝑖 (8) 𝑑
Polynomial 𝐾(𝑿𝑖 , 𝑿𝑗 ) = (𝛾𝑿𝑇𝑖 𝑿𝑗 + 𝑟) , 𝛾 > 0
The objective function (7) together with (8) represents the
quadratic optimization problem with constraints. This can be Sigmoid 𝐾(𝑿𝑖 , 𝑿𝑗 ) = 𝑡𝑎𝑛ℎ(𝜸𝑿𝑇𝑖 𝑿𝑗 + 𝑟)
solved using Lagrange multipliers as shown in (9). 𝛾, 𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑 are the parameters of the kernel function.
𝑛
1 Originally, the SVMs were created to solve problems of
2
𝐿(𝑤
⃗⃗⃗, 𝑏, 𝛼⃗) = ⃗⃗⃗ − ∑ 𝛼𝑖 [𝑦𝑖 (𝑤
𝑤 ⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑖 + 𝑏) − 1] (9) binary classification and then, they spread to classify problems
2
𝑖=1 with multiple classes. This paper holds a classification with
By eliminating the primary variables 𝑤 and 𝑏 we reach the multiple classes, focused on the schemes proposed by [13].
problem of dual optimization of Wolfe, as shown in (10),
subject to (11), which is the problem solved in the practice. III. PROPOSED METHODOLOGY

𝑛 𝑛 To carry out the classification of the condition of the

𝑚á𝑥 1 voltage supply of the induction motor, a simulation of all
[∑ 𝛼𝑖 − ∑ 𝛼𝑖 𝛼𝑗 𝑦𝑖 𝑦𝑗 (𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗.𝑖 𝑥 𝑗 ]
⃗⃗⃗⃗) (10)
𝛼 2 events considered with the use of ATP software in ATPDraw
𝑖=1 𝑖,𝑗=1
environment is performed. Table II shows the characteristics
𝑛 of the induction motor considered for the study.
𝛼𝑖 ≥ 0, ∀𝑖 𝑦 ∑ 𝛼𝑖 𝑦𝑖 = 0 (11)
TABLE II. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDUCTION MOTOR
𝑖=1

and the function of decision, which is the sign that results Number of phases 3
from evaluating a data in the OSH equation, is defined by (12) Type of motor Single Cage
𝑛
System fequency (Hz) 60
Rated voltage (kV) 0.38
𝑓(𝑥⃗) = 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 (∑[𝛼𝑖 𝑦𝑖 (𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗.𝑖 𝑥⃗)] + 𝑏 ) (12)
Horse power rating (hp) 100
𝑖=1
Rated speed (r.p.m) 1780
When the data are not linearly separable, in [10] they take a Rated power factor 0.87
different approach for SVM based on [11], to allow the Full load slip (%) 1.389
possibility of examples that violate the restriction shown in Full load efficiency 0.932
(8). They introduce the slack variables or variables of Direct across line starting current (p.u.) 8.8
relaxation given by (13) to generate the new constraint (14) Starting torque (p.u.) 3.2
𝜉𝑖 ≥ 0, ∀𝑖 (13) Inertia (kg.m^2) 1.155
Load torque (N-m) 346.590
𝑦𝑖 (𝑤
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑥
⃗⃗⃗⃗𝑖 + 𝑏) ≥ 1 − 𝜉𝑖 , ∀𝑖 (14)
The way to get the optimal classifier hyperplane with weak The events considered are labeled through a number, in
margin is by minimizing the function expressed by (15), order to carry out their classification. Table III shows the
subject to (14)[12]. events to be considered, their definition and their respective
𝑛
labels. The normal condition of operation, overvoltage and
𝑚𝑖𝑛 1 undervoltage correspond to those defined by NEMA [8], the
[ (𝑤 ⃗⃗⃗) + 𝐶 ∑ 𝜉𝑖 ]
⃗⃗⃗. 𝑤 (15) voltage unbalance is calculated using the same regulations,
𝑤 2
𝑖=1 considering from the value that affects the motor performance
Parameter C is chosen for convenience by the user, so that a (≥ 1%) and causes its derating. For the harmonic distortion of
large value is a high penalty to errors, however, the optimal the voltage wave, by means of the Fast Fourier Transform
value can be found by cross-validation of the input data. (FFT) the harmonic spectrum of the wave is obtained and

978-1-5090-2157-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

using the expression given by NEMA [8] the harmonic
distortion percentage of the voltage is obtained. The value
defined in table III (≥ 3%) corresponds to the minimum value
that causes the motor derating, as provided in the regulations
[8]. The voltage sags, which are considered, are (≥ 30%) and
of type A. The other events are the combination of the ones
already defined.

TABLE III. TAG OF EVENTS TO BE CONSIDERED.

Figure 4. Waveform and effective value of the voltage applied to the motor
Event Definition Label under normal conditions.
normal condition
0.9𝑉𝑛 ≤ 𝑉𝑛 ≤ 1.1𝑉𝑛 1
of operation Figure 5 shows the occurrence of a voltage sag at the
overvoltage > 1.1𝑉𝑛 2 terminals of the induction motor, its magnitude is 30% and its
undervoltage < 0.9𝑉𝑛 3 duration of 1s.
voltage unbalance ≥ 1% 4
overvoltage and voltage
Combination 5
unbalance
undervoltage and voltage
Combination 6
unbalance
voltage sags ≥ 30% 7
harmonic distortion of the
≥ 3% 8
voltage
harmonic distortion of the
Combination 9
voltage and overvoltage Figure 5. Voltage sag of 30% in the induction motor terminals.
harmonic distortion of the
Combination 10
voltage and undervoltage Figure 6 shows the waveform of the voltage applied to the
harmonic distortion of the induction motor, between the terminals A and B with a THDV
Combination 11
voltage and unbalance of 4.64%.
𝑉𝑛 : Nominal voltage

After containing the database composed by the

characteristics of the signals of the three (3) line voltages
(effective value and / or harmonic distortion of the voltage)
that feed the motor, we proceed to scale it to avoid that the
attributes of large numerical range dominate the ones of small
numeric range [14]. The total data is separated into two (2)
parts, the first represents approximately 70% of the total and it
is used to train the SVM, and the rest of the data is used for
testing. Then it passes the test of SVM and the accuracy is
determined by (16), all using the LibSVM [15] software in
MATLAB®.
Accuracy =
Correctly classified data
(16)
Number of test data
IV. ANALYSIS OF RESULTS
Figure 4 shows the waveforms and the effective value of the
voltages of line that feed the induction motor under normal
operating conditions. For overvoltage and undervoltage events
the waveform is similar to the waveform in normal operating
conditions, differing in its amplitude. For overvoltage, the
effective value of the supply voltage exceeds 418V and for
undervoltage inferior to 342V.
Figure 6. Waveform of the voltage applied between terminals A and B of the
induction motor with a THDV of 4.64%.
The other events correspond to the combination of those
already shown. The amount of simulated events in the
induction motor was 197, which are distributed as shown in
Table IV.
The kernel type used in this work is the RBF, which has
shown to have better accuracy [13]. With the training data
already scaled, the cross validation is carried out using data
division into five (5) validation folders. Fig. 7 shows the
outline of cross validation for different values of 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝐶
and 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝛾, it is observed that the greater accuracy is 97.10%.
We looked for the best parameters to tune the SVM for
8 ≤ 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝐶 ≤ 16 and 1 ≤ 𝑙𝑜𝑔2 𝛾 ≤ 10, in order to reduce the
computational time and the search radius; besides, the use of
𝑙𝑜𝑔2 avoids working with large numbers. The best cross-
validation accuracy is 97.10% and the best parameters (𝐶, 𝛾)
correspond to 𝐶=256, 𝛾=4. With the best parameters (𝐶, 𝛾) the

978-1-5090-2157-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

SVM is trained to generate the necessary model to carry out data (59 in total) were correctly classified with the event
the test. Table V shows confusion matrix, which shows the which occurs, the real event corresponds with the prediction
classification of test data. of the event.

TABLE IV. DISTRIBUTION OF THE TRAINING DATA AND TEST. V. CONCLUSIONS

Quantity Training Test In this paper it was presented the classification of the status
Event
of data data data of the supply voltage in induction motors, based on SVM. The
normal condition of occurrence of 11 different events in the low voltage induction
45 32 13
operation motor was considered. The total amount of data was 197, 138
overvoltage 22 16 6 of which were used for training and 59 for testing the SVM.
undervoltage 22 16 6 RBF kernel was used and the best parameters (𝐶, 𝛾) were
voltage unbalance 24 18 6 (256.4) respectively. The classification of the fifty nine test
overvoltage and voltage events associated with the condition of the voltage supply was
12 8 4 perfect. The SVM represent a complete tool in the industry for
unbalance
undervoltage and voltage classification of the condition of the supply voltage in
12 8 4 induction motors, allowing bettering the useful life of these
unbalance
voltage sags 12 8 4 machines.
harmonic distortion of the
12 8 4 REFERENCES
voltage
[1] J. Barros, M. De Apraiz, and R. I. Diego, “On-line monitoring of
harmonic distortion of the
12 8 4 electrical power quality for assessment of induction motor
voltage and overvoltage performance,” 2009 IEEE Int. Electr. Mach. Drives Conf., pp.
harmonic distortion of the 1140–1145, 2009.
12 8 4 [2] P. Gnaciński, “Windings temperature and loss of life of an induction
voltage and undervoltage
machine under voltage unbalance combined with over- or
harmonic distortion of the undervoltages,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers., vol. 23, no. 2, pp.
12 8 4
voltage and unbalance 363–371, 2008.
Total of data 197 138 59 [3] P. Pillay and M. Manyage, “Loss of life in induction machines
operating with unbalanced supplies,” IEEE Trans. Energy Convers.,
vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 813–822, 2006.
[4] P. K. Sen and H. a. Landa, “Derating of induction motors due to
waveform distortion,” IEEE Trans. Ind. Appl., vol. 26, no. 6, pp.
1102–1107, 1990.
[5] J. V. Milanovic, M. T. Aung, and S. C. Vegunta, “The influence of
induction motors on voltage sag propagation - Part I: Accounting for
the change in sag characteristics,” IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., vol.
23, no. 2, pp. 1063–1071, 2008.
[6] H. Singh, M. Seera, and A. P. Ismail, “Condition monitoring of
electrical supply voltage quality to electrical machines using RBF
neural network,” 2010 IEEE Int. Conf. Power Energy, pp. 312–317,
2010.
[7] H. Ismail, Z. Zakaria, and N. Hamzah, “Investigation on the
effectiveness of classifying the voltage sag using support vector
machine,” 2009 IEEE Symp. Ind. Electron. Appl., pp. 1012–1015,
TABLE V. CONFUSION MATRIX OF TEST DATA. 2009.
[8] “Motors and Generators, ANSI/NEMA Standards Publication,” no.
Real Event MG-1. 2004.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 [9] A. Von Jouanne and B. Banerjee, “Assessment of voltage
unbalance,” IEEE Trans. Power Deliv., vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 782–790,
1 13 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2001.
2 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [10] C. Cortes and V. Vapnik, “Support-Vector Networks,” Machine
0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Event prediction

3 Learning, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 273–297, 1995.

4 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 [11] K. Bennett and O. L. Mangasarian, “Robust linear programming
discrimination of two linearly inseparable sets,” Optim. Methods
5 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 Softw., vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 23–34, 1992.
6 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 [12] G. Li, C. Wen, Z. G. Li, A. Zhang, F. Yang, and K. Mao, “Model-
7 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 based online learning with kernels,” IEEE Trans. Neural Networks
Learn. Syst., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 356–369, 2013.
8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 [13] C. Hsu and C. Lin, “A comparison of methods for multiclass
9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 support vector machines,” IEEE Trans. Neural Networks, vol. 13,
10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 no. 2, pp. 415–425, 2002.
[14] C. Hsu, C. Chang, and C. Lin, “A Practical Guide to Support Vector
11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 Classification,” BJU international, 2008. [Online]. Available:
http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/papers/guide/guide.pdf.
Table V shows that the confusion matrix has values greater [15] C. Chang and C. Lin, “LIBSVM : A Library for Support Vector
than zero only in the main diagonal, this indicates that all test Machines,” 2001. [Online]. Available:
https://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~cjlin/libsvm/.

978-1-5090-2157-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE