Area substations are numerous and diverse,and they have complex line loss and electricity-saving features.In order to effectively investigate the electricity-saving of area substations and scientifically classify area substations,an electricity-saving classification method of area substations is proposed based on the fuzzy c-means clustering.In the method,first,a comprehensive index system is designed for the electricity-saving classification,which includes the basic property index sub system and the electrical property index sub system.The basic property index sub system covers the basic parameters of substations,such as the capacity and number of main transformers.The electrical property index sub system covers the electrical parameters of substations,such as the transport capacity and the electricity consumption.Next,according to the influence of each index on the loss and electricity-saving features of the substations,the index weights are determined by means of the analytic hierarchy process ( AHP) ,and an electricity-saving classification model of the substations is constructed based on AHP-FCM.Then,numerous area substations are classified into several categories respectively by utilizing the designed comprehensive index system,the basic property index sub system and the electrical property index sub system.Moreover,the indepth understanding of the loss and comprehensive electricity-saving features of the substations are obtained by analyzing and comparing three kinds of electricity-saving classification results and the corresponding clustering results,which can provide guidance for the follow-up studies.Finally,the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method are verified by analyzing the actual data of 90 transformer substations.