Using appliance signatures for monitoring residential loads at meter panel level

The author presents an initial approach to identifying electrical household appliances strictly by analyzing variations in current-voltage signals at the meter panel level. The study shows that local measurement of variations in active and reactive power is sufficient in most cases to identify an appliance. This measurement must be synchronized with the events. This necessitates a numerical measurement device which can monitor the signal and isolate the times when variations occur. In a second stage, a sorting algorithm identifies the appliance that has operated. An attempt is made to show the feasibility of this device. Test findings secured on site using a test prototype are presented