The new power generation systems, the increasing number of equipment connected to the power grid, and the introduction of technologies such as the smart grid, underline the importance and complexity of the Power Quality (PQ) evaluation. In this scenario, an Automatic PQ Events Classifier (APQEC) that detects, segments, and classifies the anomaly in the power signal is needed for the timely intervention and maintenance of the grid. Due to the extension and complexity of the network, the number of points to be monitored is large, making the cost of the infrastructure unreasonable. To reduce the cost, a new architecture for an APQEC is proposed. This architecture is composed of several Locally Distributed Nodes (LDNs) and a Central Classification Unit (CCU). The LDNs are in charge of the acquisition, the detection of PQ events, and the segmentation of the power signal. Instead, the CCU receives the information from the nodes to classify the PQ events. A low-computational capability characterizes low-cost LDNs. For this reason, a suitable PQ event detection and segmentation method with low resource requirements is proposed. It is based on the use of a sliding observation window that establishes a reasonable time interval, which is also useful for signal classification and the multi-sine fitting algorithm to decompose the input signal in harmonic components. These components can be compared with established threshold values to detect if a PQ event occurs. Only in this case, the signal is sent to the CCU for the classification; otherwise, it is discarded. Numerical tests are performed to set the sliding window size and observe the behavior of the proposed method with the main PQ events presented in the literature, even when the SNR varies. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposal, highlighting the correspondence with numerical results and the reduced execution time when compared to FFT-based methods.
