This paper discusses the utilization of complex continuous wavelet transform based on B-spline function for reference voltages and currents extraction which are used for compensating power quality disturbances by using unified power quality conditioner. The major advantages of choosing B-spline function are the reduction of computation time and ease of online implementation. The performance of the proposed wavelet transform is compared with the discrete Meyer wavelet and complex Morlet wavelet transforms. Detailed simulation studies are carried out using Matlab/Simulink to prove the ability of the proposed method. It is inferred from the simulation results that the proposed B-spline complex wavelet transform based reference signal extraction is as accurate as complex Morlet wavelet transform but has less computational burden. © 2010 IEEE.