Power utility nontechnical loss analysis with extreme learning machine method

This paper presents a new approach to nontechnical loss (NTL) analysis for utilities using the modern computational technique extreme learning machine (ELM). Nontechnical losses represent a significant proportion of electricity losses in both developing and developed countries. The ELM-based approach presented here uses customer load-profile information to expose abnormal behavior that is known to be highly correlated with NTL activities. This approach provides a method of data mining for this purpose, and it involves extracting patterns of customer behavior from historical kWh consumption data. The results yield classification classes that are used to reveal whether any significant behavior that emerges is due to irregularities in consumption. In this paper, ELM and online sequential-ELM (OS-ELM) algorithms are both used to achieve an improved classification performance and to increase accuracy of results. A comparison of this approach with other classification techniques, such as the support vector machine (SVM) algorithm, is also undertaken and the ELM performance and accuracy in NTL analysis is shown to be superior. © 2008 IEEE.