Towards Bridging the Gap Between the Smart Grid and Smart Energy Consumption

Smart meters report power usage at 15 minute intervals and, compared to monthly power bills, provide the users with a much finer resolution time series of energy usage. However, apart from identifying times of peak energy usage, these smart meters provide little actionable data for the user in terms of reducing their power costs. Our research involves the development of an intelligent metering system that uses non-intrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM) to identify the largest energy usage appliances in a residence or small business. The signal processing algorithms employed separate the energy used by individual appliances from the total natural gas and electricity measured at the point where the utilities enter the residence. Utility ratepayers need detailed information to effectively identify and mitigate inefficient appliances and activities. The cost to operate each specific appliance is sent, via a secure home area network, to the user’s computer and accessed via a web browser. An easy to use interactive tool has been developed to label appliances and present this data to the user. Tests have been performed in three residences to compare the performance of our load disaggregation system with that of isolated electrical power measurements from ten or more appliances. Disaggregating the total energy usage into appliance specific usage will transform ratepayers’ ability to conserve energy. Inefficient appliances can be identified, usage patterns can be shifted to lower tariffs times, failing appliances can be detected before they fail, and energy efficient measures can be implemented based on a true cost-benefit calculation.