Application ofFuzzyClustering toDetermine Electricity Consumers' LoadProfiles

Inaregulated environment, loadprofiles havebeen employedtoprovide information forforecasting, system planning and demandsideplanning. However,in the deregulated environment, consumers canpurchase electricity fromanyprovider regardless ofsize andlocation. Asaresult, loadprofiles havebecomemoresignificant. Thedetermination ofcustomer loadprofile mayfacilitate utility companies with bettermarketing strategies and improvedefficiency in operating thecurrent facilities. Thispaperexamined the capability offuzzyclustering todetermine consumers load profiles on thebasisoftheirelectricity behaviour. Two techniques infuzzy clustering namely, fuzzy relation andfuzzy c-means(FCM)wereemployed inthis work.Theloaddata usedinthis workarefromactual measurements fromdifferent feeders derived fromadistribution network. Cluster validity indices willbeusedtodetermine theoptimumclusters. The performance ofeachalgorithm will beevaluated byemploying adequacyindices i.e.mean indexadequacy(MIA)and clustering dispersion indicator (CDI). Indexterms- Loadprofiling, clustering, fuzzyc-means, fuzzy relation