Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring: A Review and Outlook

With the roll-out of smart meters the importance of effective non-intrusive load monitoring (NILM) techniques has risen rapidly. NILM estimates the power consumption of individual devices given their aggregate consumption. In this way, the combined consumption must only be monitored at a single, central point in the household, providing various advantages such as reduced cost for metering equipment. In this paper we discuss the fundamental building-blocks of NILM, first giving a taxonomy of appliance models and device signatures and then explaining common supervised and unsupervised learning methods. Furthermore, we outline a fundamental algorithm that tackles the task of NILM. Subsequently, this paper reviews recent research that has brought novel insight to the field and more effective techniques. Finally, we formulate future challenges in the domain of NILM and smart meters.