Non intrusive load monitoring for demand side management

In the context of a pilot project, the Lugaggia Innovation Community (LIC), we address the problem of non-intrusive load monitoring for the purpose of demand side management on low voltage grids in presence of distributed power generation (photovoltaic). From the power readings of smart meters, we estimate the photovoltaic production and detect the activation of major loads (heatpumps and domestic water heaters). Experiments, conducted with real data and in silico, show that exploiting meter readings only, we can estimate PV production with MAPE ranging from 4.6% (best case) to 41.9% (worst case). Even with non negligible photovoltaic production estimation errors, the proposed method is capable of detecting the activation of heatpumps and domestic water heaters.