Electric Customer Classification Using
Hopfield Recurrent ANN
López, José J.; Aguado, José A; Martín, Francisco; Muñoz, F; Rodríguez, Alejandro and Ruiz, José E.
Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica. Universidad de Málaga, España
Tel:+34 952131306, Fax:+34 952131091, e-mail: jjlopez@uma.es
Keywords— Non-supervised classification, Hopfield ANN,
Principal Components.
Abstract— In retail power markets precise information
related to electric customers is of relevant interest. For efficient
tariff design and pricing it is required accurate classification and
segmentation of electric customers. In this paper, it is proposed a
methodology for clustering electric customers based on a
recurrent Hopfield Artificial Neural Network (H-ANN). In order
to reduce the size of the input set of the clustering algorithm
several filtering techniques are used. The effectiveness of the
proposed approach is measured using characterization indexes.
Results in a set of distribution customers are presented to
demonstrate de efficiency of the approach.
I. INTRODUCTION
I N liberalized electrical energy markets, customers are
playing a more and more key role in achieving efficiency in
a competitive market setting. Electrical energy suppliers are
interested to develop new strategies and products oriented to
the customers with the objective to offer the best possible
service at the least cost.
The new liberalized scheme of the electrical energy
systems has promoted the need to precisely monitor and
control the activities of the customers. A correct knowledge of
demand behavior offers the opportunity of providers to
formulate dedicated tariffs and design efficient pricing
schemes. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tools that
correctly classify the demand consumption pattern.
In order to identify the consumption pattern of the
customers, power suppliers group customers exhibiting similar
patterns into clusters. The amount of customer data is usually
huge so, before clustering, a filtering technique is applied [1].
Statistical techniques have been used for the analysis of
series of data but more recently Artificial Intelligence based
techniques have attracted much attention. Among the most
successful techniques, it can be highlighted the “modified
follow-the-leader” [1],[2] and [4], Self-Organized Maps
(SOM) [3] and [5], K-means [1]-[5], and fuzzy K-means [1].
y [3]. On the other hand, and in order to measure the quality
of the cluster algorithms, several indexes have been proposed.
[1, 3, 8]. In this paper, a Hopfield Artificial Neural Network
(H-ANN) is proposed as a clustering technique for
classification of electric customers.
978-1-4244-1744-5/08/$25.00 ©2008 IEEE
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II,
characterization and reduction data techniques are reviewed.
The Hopfield recurrent artificial neural network is detailed in
Section III. In Section IV, it is described and formulated
several cluster validation indexes. Then, in Section V, results
of the application of the Hopfield Neural Network in a set of
data of distribution customers are shown. Finally, conclusions
are given.
II. CHARACTERIZATION AND DATA REDUCTION
Classification and clustering approaches of large databases
of electric customers usually requires a reduction of the
number of data. This must be done without any loss of
relevant information. The most used techniques are the hour
load profile, the form factors method, the harmonic analysis
(Discrete Fourier transform), the time-frequency analysis
(Discrete Wavelet transform) and the Principal Component
Analysis (PCA).
A. Hour load profile.
Electrical customers can be considered as elements of a N-
dimension vector space. Each vector is formed by the values
of consumption at a certain time interval.
Let Q be a set of vectors representing electrical customers.
Each customer P(q) can be considered as a vector:
P
P ( q ) = [ p1( q ) , p 2( q ) ,..., p N( q ) ] q = 1,2,..., Q (1)
where N is the number of variables that characterizes the
electrical customer.
B. Form factors
A form factor is defined as a parameter that characterizes a
vector (x1,…., xn) . Examples of form factors are the
arithmetic mean, the RMS value, the standard deviation, etc.
Many form factors can be defined. The proposed method
consists of expressing the information contained in the vector
by means of a small number of parameters.
The form factors are a set of factors in the range [0, 1].
Each one of them emphasizes a particular aspect of the load
curve. The nine indexes used to classify the electrical
consumers are shown in Table I (see [ 1, 5]).
 TABLE I the time-frequency response of the load curve. The frequency
FORM FACTORS response of the electrical consumers is computed from a
Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). This process is called
Annonation Definition multiresolution analysis.
ff1 Pmed,day/P max,day The first step in obtaining a DWT consists of feeding the
ff2 P med,solar day/P max,solar day discrete-time signal to a low-pass filter with impulse response
l(n). Then the signal is subsampled in order to remove half of
ff3 P min,day/P med,solar day
the samples, according to Nyquist's rule. This process can be
ff4 1/3.(P med,nigh/P med,day) expressed as:
ff5 1/5.(P med,noon/ P med,solar day)
ff6 P min,solar day/P med,solar day
ff7 P med,nigh/P med,solar day y(k ) = ∑ x ( n ) ⋅ l ( 2k − n ) (7)
ff8 1/5.(P max,solar day/P max,day) n

ff9 P min,day/P min,solar day

C. Harmonic analysis
Harmonic analysis consists of extracting a series of indices
or variables from the frequency response of the load curve.
The frequency response of the electrical consumers is
computed using the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT). This
process is called harmonic analysis.
For each harmonic coefficient, three variables are defined.
One is the coefficient's module (Ah) and the other two are
values related to the phase (Xh´ and Xh´´).
where y(k) is the filtered and subsampled signal, l(2k-n)
represents the subsampling together with the filtering
operation, and x(n) is the original signal.
Decomposition of the signal into different frequency bands
is accomplish by a low-pass filter l(n) followed by a high-pass
filter u(n). This operation is expressed as:
y high (k ) = ∑ x ( n ) ⋅ u ( 2k − n ) (8)
n

y low ( k ) = ∑ x ( n) ⋅ l ( 2k − n)
n

1 − cos(θ h ) Ah
X h´ = ⋅ (2) where yhigh(k) and ylow(k) they are the outputs from the high-
2 ∑A
j∈Θn
2
j and low-pass filters, respectively.
The variables set are obtained from an analysis MRA, is
1 − sin(θ h ) Ah the different values from the approximated signal of greater
X h´´ = ⋅ (3) level. These values are used as indices based on the dominion
2 ∑A
j∈Θ
2
j time-frequency, and the number of indices will depend on the
level of DTW.
E. Principal components analysis (PCA).
where Ah and h are the module and phase of the h order It consists to represent a n observation set with p variable,
harmonic coefficient, and Ѳn is the set of ordered harmonic in another set of information with a minor number of variables
coefficients according to the decreasing value of ζh. r. The new set of information is a linear combination of the
For a set of n harmonics, the variables are defined as: original observations. Mathematically, it is necessary to
calculate the matrix of own values (V).
With the matrix of own values, we calculated a matrix Z,
f n = {( Ak , X k´ , X k´´ ), (k ≠ 0) ∩ (k ∈ Θ n )}∪ L that relates the original observations X, with matrix V, of the
(4) following way:
{( A ), (k = 0) ∩ (k ∈ Θ )}
k n

For a client q, the set of n harmonics is: Z = X ⋅V (9)

If we want to collect the new data in a space r<p, we have

f n( q ) = {f j( q ) , j = 1,L , n} (5) to select the p first columns of the V(maximum variance).
Thus we have the original data in a space of r dimensions.
and for Q customers, it is:

Z r = X ⋅ Vr (10)
Fn = { f n( q ) , q = 1, L , Q} (6)
where Zr they are the data in dimensional space r, X is the
matrix of original data and Vr is the matrix with the r
D. Multiresolution analysis(MRA) component selected.
It consists of extracting series of indexes or variables from
 III. HOPFIELD NEURONAL NETWORK
This model was introduced in the early 80’s by John
Hopfield [9].
The Hopfield Artificial Neural Network is a recurrent
neural network, i.e., a neural network where the connections
between the units form a directed cycle. Therefore, the output
of the network becomes its input. Recurrent neural networks
must be approached differently from feed-forward neural
networks, in designing, analyzing their behavior and training
them. Recurrent neural networks can also behave chaotically.
Usually, the dynamical system theory is used to model and
analyze them.
Essentially, a Hopfield-ANN is constituted by N units
connecting processes between them, thus the entrances of each
process unit are the exits of the other units. An illustrative
graph of a H-ANN is shown in Figure 1.
The main characteristic of the H-ANN is that as iterations
progress, the computational energy function reduced and
stabilize [9].
IV. INDICATORS OF CLUSTER VALIDATION
In order to measure the efficiency of the Hopfield-ANN
several indexes are defined. These indexes measure the quality
of clusters provided by the Hopfield-ANN. These indexes
were previously proposed in [1-5] and [8].
A. Mean index adecuacy (MIA)
It is the geometric average of the distance between the
centroide of the cluster and all the curves that belong to this
cluster. This distance is computed for all clusters formed in
the classification process.

1 K

w24= w42 MIA =

K
∑d
k =1
2
(C ( k ) , S ( k ) ) (13)
2 4 w4N= wN4
w12= w21
where C(k) are the centroides of clusters and S(k) is the
1 N customers number in cluster k.
B. Clustering indicating dispersion (CDI)
w13= w31 w5N= wN5 This index determines the dispersion of each cluster.
3 5
w35= w53

Fig.1 Example of Hopfield Neuronal Network. wij are the connection weights 1 1 K ^
CDI = ^
K
∑d 2
(S (k ) ) (14)
The connection weights are represented by a weight matrix d (C ) k =1

W=(wij ) whose weights are named synaptical weights. A main

^
feature of W is that it is a symmetric matrix and wii=0. where d (C ) is the average distance of centroides clusters and
When the exit of the unit process is activated, it shows state ^
1. If this exit is deactivated, it shows state 0. The Hopfield- d ( S ( k ) ) is the average distance of customers cluster S(k).
ANN begins with an initial state that is defined by the
sequence s1(0), s2(0),...., sN(0), where si(0) ∈ {0,1}. During C. Davies-Bouldin index (DBI)
each iteration, a process unit is randomly selected. If during This index is the average of the distances of each cluster
the iteration k+1, we select the process unit i, a recurrent with their closer cluster.
update rule determines the state that represents this unit based
on the same sequence at iteration k, i.e. s1(k), s2(k)...., sN(k).
The recurrent updating rule is the following. 1 K ⎧⎪ d^ ( S ( i ) ) + d^ ( S ( j ) ) ⎫⎪
DBI =
K
∑ máx ⎨ (i ) ( j) ⎬ (15)
i , j =1 ⎪⎩ d (C , C ) ⎪⎭
⎧ N
⎫
⎪1 if
⎪
∑ w s (k ) ≥ θ ⎪⎪
ij j ^

s i ( k + 1) = ⎨
j =1 where d ( S ( i ) ) is the average distance of customers cluster i,
N ⎬ (11)
⎪0 if
∑ wij s j ( k ) < θ ⎪
^

⎪⎩ ⎪⎭ d ( S ( j ) ) is the average distance of customer cluster j and

j =1
d (C ( i ) , C ( j ) ) is the distance between centroides clusters i,j.
where the parameters wij, are the synaptical weights and θ is a
threshold parameter. V. TEST RESULTS
At iteration k, a computational energy function E(k) can be The H-ANN was applied on a data set corresponding to
defined as medium voltage customers of a distribution utility in southern
Spain. The data consist of 230 measures grouped into three
1 N N N
categories: Public Service (P=19), Residential (R=36) and
E (k ) = − ∑∑
2 i=1 j =1
wij
s ii
( k ) s j
( k ) +∑i =1
θ i si (k ) (12) Industry (I=175). The data set was normalized in the range [0,
1].
 First, test results are presented showing the efficiency of TABLE II
NUMBER OF CUSTOMER CLASSES
the filtering techniques described in Section II combined with
the H-ANN.
Number of customer classes
In Figs. 2, 3 and 4, it is shown the evolution of validation Number cluster (K)
P R I
indexes (MIA, CDI and DBI) with respect to the number of
cluster. It can be concluded that DFT, DWT and PCA obtain 8 3 7 2
very similar results being the best filtering procedures. 9 3 8 2
10 3 9 2
11 4 9 2
12 4 9 3
13 4 10 3
14 4 11 3
15 5 12 3
16 5 13 3
17 4 14 3
18 5 14 3
19 5 14 3
20 5 14 4

This table shows the number of customer classes for

Fig. 2: Index of validation MIA
different number of cluster. As the number of cluster
increases, the number of customer classes is stabilized. The
evolution of the computational energy function of the H-ANN
is plotted in Fig. 5

Fig.3: Index of validation CDI

Fig.5: Energy of stabilization with principal components

For the PCA, the contribution of each principal component

is shown in Table III.
TABLE III
PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS CONTRIBUTION

MC 1 MC 2 MC 3
% Contribution
95,45 2,60 1,24

For a given number of cluster K=10, Table IV shows the

Fig. 4: Index of validation DBI number of customer in each cluster.

In the next subsections, the behavior of the H-ANN in

combination with DWT and PCA is analyzed.
A. Classification with PCA
The classification results using PCA for a range varying
from 8 to 20 clusters is shown in Table II.
 TABLE IV
CUSTOMER NUMBER FOR K=10

customer
Cluster
P R I
1 - 4 -
2 - 16 -
3 7 23 -
4 - 7 14
5 - 16 -
6 - 36 -
7 - 34 -
Fig.6: Energy of stabilization with DWT analysis
8 - - 22
9 4 16 -
For a given number of cluster K=10, Table VI shows the
10 8 23 - number of customer in each cluster.

It can be observed that for K=10, five clusters (1, 2, 5, 6 y TABLA VI

7) only have customer of type R, only one cluster has CUSTOMER NUMBER FOR K=10
customer of type I (8) and finally, four cluster have a mix of
customers (3, 4, 9 and 10). customers
Cluster
U R I
B. Classification with DWT
1 - 5 -
The classification results using DWT for a range varying
2 - 20 -
from 8 to 20 clusters is shown in Table V. A level 5 DWT is
3 5 16 -
employed for all simulations.
4 10 24 -
TABLE V 5 - 30 -
NUMBER OF CUSTOMER CLASSES 6 - 30 -
7 - 16 -
Number of customer classes 8 3 5 16
Number cluster (K)
U R I 9 1 29 -
8 3 7 2 10 - - 20
9 3 8 2
10 4 9 2 It can be observed that for K=10, five clusters (1, 2, 5, 6 y
11 5 10 2 7) only have customer of type R, only one cluster has
12 5 11 3 customer of type I (10) and finally, four cluster have a mix of
13 5 12 3 customers (3, 4, 8 and 9).
14 5 12 3
15 5 13 3
16 5 14 3 VI. CONCLUSIONS
17 6 15 3 A set of load profiles has been classified using the
18 7 16 4 different procedures exposed in this paper. Results of different
approaches have been compared. For all cases the Hopfield-
19 7 17 4
ANN was stabilized and reached a minimum.
20 7 17 5 The cluster validation index (MIA, CDI and DB) employed
indicate that, except for the form factors indices, all the
Similarly to previous subsection, Table V shows the procedures give very similar results.
number of customer classes for different number of clusters. The best results are reached with data characterization by
As the number of cluster increases, the number of customer DWT and PCA although PCA is the most efficient method
classes is stabilized. As can be observed, the number of with respect computation time since only three parameters per
customer classes is higher as the one obtained with PCA. load curve is used.
The evolution of the computational energy function of the
H-ANN for the DWT is plotted in Fig. 6. A higher value for REFERENCES
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BIOGRAPHIES
José Jesús López Vázquez (b. 1967) received the graduate in Electrical
Engineering and Master in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence from
the University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain. Currently, he is an Associate
Professor at the Dept. Electrical Engineering of University of Málaga (1993-
2008). His topics of research include operation and planning of electric power
systems.

José A. Aguado received the Ingeniero Industrial and Ph.D. degrees from
the University of Málaga, Málaga, Spain, in 1997 and 2001, respectively.
Currently, he is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of
Electrical Engineering at the University of Málaga. His research interests
include operation, planning, and deregulation of electric energy systems and
numerical optimization techniques

Francisco Ignacio Martin Moreno received his Licenciado en

Matemáticas degree from the University of Granada (Spain), his Ingeniero
Industrial degree from the UNED, and the PhD degree from the University of
Malaga (Spain). He was a visiting professor at the University of British
Columbia (Canada). He is currently a Professor at the Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Malaga. His research areas of interest are power
system protection, time-frequency analysis, and power quality.

Francisco Jesús Muñoz Gutiérrez (b. 1964) received the graduate in

Electronic and Industrial Automation and Master in Computer Science and
Artificial Intelligence from the University of Málaga, Málaga. Spain.
Presently, he is Dean of the Polytechnic School at the University of Malaga
where he is also an Associate Professor (1986-2008) at the Department of
Electrical Engineering. His topics of research include transmission lines and
artificial intelligence techniques applied to power systems.

Alejandro Rodríguez Gómez (b. 1971) received the graduate in

Electrical Engineering and Master in Computer Science and Artificial
Intelligence from the University of Málaga. Presently he is Associate
Professor at the Dept. Electrical Engineering of University of Málaga (1995-
2008). His topics of research include power quality and renewable energies.