In this paper, a new approach for the detection and classification of single and combined power quality (PQ) disturbances is proposed using fuzzy logic and a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. In the proposed method, suitable features of the waveform of the PQ disturbance are first extracted. These features are extracted from parameters derived from the Fourier and wavelet transforms of the signal. Then, the proposed fuzzy system classifies the type of PQ disturbances based on these features. The PSO algorithm is used to accurately determine the membership function parameters for the fuzzy systems. To test the proposed approach, the waveforms of the PQ disturbances were assumed to be in the sampled form. The impulse, interruption, swell, sag, notch, transient, harmonic, and flicker are considered as single disturbances for the voltage signal. In addition, eight possible combinations of single disturbances are considered as the PQ combined types. The capability of the proposed approach to identify these PQ disturbances is also investigated, when white Gaussian noise, with various signal to noise ratio (SNR) values, is added to the waveforms. The simulation results show that the average rate of correct identification is about 96% for different single and combined PQ disturbances under noisy conditions.