Non Intrusive Load Monitoring in Chaotic Switched

Networks
Pedro Garciaa,b , Xavier Domingueza , David Chizaa and Jose Restrepoa
a
Facultad de Ingenierı́a en Ciencias Aplicadas,
Universidad Técnica del Norte, Ibarra, Ecuador.
b
Laboratorio de Sistemas Complejos, Facultad de Ingenierı́a, Universidad Central de Venezuela.
{pgarcia, exdominguez, jdchiza, jarestrepo}@utn.edu.ec

Abstract—This work presents a nonintrusive load disaggre-
gation scheme. The proposed methodology uses a kernel based
nonlinear regression strategy to analyze a set of RLC loads with
chaotic switching, considering the time series of the total power
consumption. The employed approach, to the authors’ knowledge,
represents a novelty in the treatment of the problem. The attained
results suggest that the exposed methodology can be useful in the
design of efficient load disaggregation tactics.
Index Terms—Chaotic Switching, Kernel Methods, Non-
Intrusive Load Monitoring, Nonlinear Regression
transient state of an appliance corresponds to the time period
between the device’s off and steady state operation and vice
versa. This usually results from sudden changes in the circuit.
This can be an on or off transient, depending on the changes
in the load condition. The transient pattern of most electrical
appliances is different between them, which makes them
suitable for load identification [4]. Non-traditional signatures
such as temperature, light sensing and time of day, can also
help to improve the identification.

I. I NTRODUCTION Since the NILM method employs only one set of sensors
at the utilitys entry point, it involves the use of identification
Modern smart grids and microgrids have the advantage
algorithms on the collected signatures before recognizing the
of increasing quality of service; while allowing performing
connected loads. Within the set of strategies to perform NILM,
energy efficiency strategies. To achieve this, the smart grid
there are several methods from the computational intelligence
or microgrid controller needs detailed information on the
field, such as: Back Propagation Artificial Neural Network
consumption behavior of the different loads within the
(ANN) with Artificial Immune Algorithm [5], Multilayer
system. There are basically two approaches to do such load
Feed Forward ANN [6], ANN with genetic programming [7],
monitoring, the first is using intrusive load monitoring (ILM)
supervised self-organizing map (SSOM)/Bayesian identifier
methods and the second is using nonintrusive load monitoring
[8], and classification with Neural Network Classifier and
(NILM) methods. The intrusive approach uses individual
Bayes Classifier [9].
measurements at every load of interest. Therefore, the need
of many sets of sensors in ILM systems makes it expensive,
In any of the above mentioned strategies, the activity
complex in installation and more difficult to maintain. Also,
recognition during appliance monitoring can have different
the need of smart appliances in ILM systems is common for
levels of granularity depending on the application [10] such
the load monitoring.
as the recognition of daily living pattern activities, occupancy
detection and user appliance correlation. This information
On the other hand, in the NILM approach, there is no
is useful as it permits the inference of underlying patterns
need for intrusion into the individual or group of appliances
which are useful when designing a high-performance load
when monitoring their power consumption. Rather, the load
monitoring system. Regardless of the employed methodology,
identification relies on the analysis of voltage and current
the common goal of NILM systems consists in providing
waveforms measured at the electrical services entry point, to
fine-grained energy decomposition per appliances in order to
infer the nature, operating conditions and power consumption,
procure the optimization of the energy consumption while
of each load [1].
preserving the comfort of the users.
There are three categories for classifying the load signatures
This work proposes a non-intrusive load disaggregation
under NILM [2]: steady state signatures, transient signatures
scheme, by using a nonlinear modeling strategy based on
and non-traditional signatures. Steady state signatures
the kernel-Adaline algorithm. To achieve this goal, the aim
correspond to load features extracted when the appliance is
of this work is twofold. First, the method uses a simple
on its steady state operation, which include steady state real
model of a power network, simulated as RLC branches that
power, reactive power, rms current, rms voltage, power factor
are connected and disconnected through chaotic witching,
and harmonics, see for instance [3]. On the other hand, the
that is, with a disordered but deterministic dynamic. Second,
978-1-5386-6657-9/18/$31.00
2018
c IEEE the presented method employs an approach to transform the
NILM problem into a non-linear regression problem, whose
solution is approximate using the kernel-Adaline algorithm
[11]. Although the first objective is straightforward to fulfill,
the idea developed in the second, as far as we know, is
unpublished. Even though the number of loads used in the
simulation is small, the proposed methodology can be scaled
to bigger systems.
This paper is organized as follows: Section I provides a
brief introduction to the research topic. Section II explains the
employed mathematical modeling for a network of electrical
loads. In Section III, NILM is approached as a nonlinear
regression problem. Simulation results are exhibited in Section
IV. Finally, conclusions are addressed.
II. A SIMPLE MODEL FOR A NETWORK OF ELECTRICAL
LOADS
In [12], the MIT group suggested the use of four appliance
models to develop the identification algorithms: on/off, finite
state machines, continuously variable and permanent state
devices. As a first approach this work considers only on/off
linear appliances. Nevertheless, with a few modifications, the
exposed tactic could be extended to other type of loads.
A simple switched RLC circuit, shown in Fig. 1, serves to
disordered. Here, the implementation of S(t) begins by con-
verting the continuous states from the chaotic Logistic map
xn+1 = 4xn (1 − xn ), into a chaotic binary signal as follows:

1 xn ≤ 1/2
rn =
K xn > 1/2
The continuous switching functions Sj (t) are then constructed,
defining the state of each switch as Sj (t) = rn , with n = b τtj c,
i. e. the entire part of τtj , where τj are a set of parameters
that dilates the binary signals Sn and provide flexibility to the
model, allowing to change the frequency of the switching but
keeping its disordered feature. Here, K = 105 is a constant
large enough to simulate the switch in OFF condition or an
appliance in standby.
In this way the time series xn with discrete time and
continuous states is transformed into a function of binary states
with chaotic evolution and continuous time. The resulting
system of differential equations is numerically integrated, to
later estimate the total current’s rms value, as a function of
time. The results are shown in Fig. 2.
1.0

simulate an electric network made of on/off loads.

0.8

A
in , S n

0.6
R
Line resistance
S1(t) S2(t) SM(t)
0.4
Supply
voltage V RLC RLC RLC
Load M 0.2
Load 1 Load 2

0.0
0 500 1000 1500 2000

Fig. 1. Electric network. Every load is represented by a RLC circuit, whose Fig. 2. Total current and switching dynamics. The black and gray lines
values of R, L and C can be set in order to simulate a particular appliance. represents, the rms value of the total current and the switching states,
respectively.

This network in turn can be represented as a system of As indicated by [13] and as observed in practice, the
coupled differential equations: complexity of the signal q(t) increases with: the number of
devices, the switching frequency of the devices, the number of
dq d2 q1 dq1 q1 states of the devices and the number of devices with similar
R + L1 2 + R1 S1 (t) + =  cos(wt), power consumption.
dt dt dt C1
dq d2 q2 dq2 q2 III. NILM AS A NONLINEAR REGRESSION PROBLEM
R + L2 2 + R2 S2 (t) + =  cos(wt),
dt dt dt C2
.. In this section we attempt to state the problem of non
. intrusive load monitoring from the point of view of dynamical
dq d2 qM dqM qM systems theory. In this approach, the observation of the system
R + LM + RM SM (t) + =  cos(wt),
dt dt2 dt CM is frequently performed by monitoring the evolution of some
state variables, namely x(t), taken at uniformly spaced times.
where, q = q1 + q2 + q3 + · · · + qM . The set of all allowed states x(t) is called state space A.

The switching Sj (t), with j = 1, . . . , M , follows a chaotic Thus, if the purpose is to predict the future evolution of
dynamic, in the sense that the dynamic is deterministic but some dynamical system, xn+1 = f (xn ) with x ∈ Rm , then
the analysis using embedding methods is a popular alternative
[14], [15]. In these approaches, the data is organized in delay
vectors xn = (xn , xn−1 , · · · , xn−d+1 ). Taken’s theorem [16]
shows that under general conditions, if d = 2m + 1, there is
a difeomorphism Φ : A → Rd such that the dynamical rule
governing the evolution of the reconstructed states xn is given
by xn+1 = Φ ◦ f ◦ Φ−1 (xn ), this is,
xn+1 = F (xn ).
An approximation of F can be constructed from the obser-
vations xn and used to forecast the evolution of the system.
In our case, we are dealing with a succession {ij }, j =
1, 2, . . . , N , of N values of the total current measured at
uniform intervals and {Sjk }, with j = 1, 2, . . . , N and k =
1, 2, . . . , M , the time series of the states of the k-th switch in
the time j.
If the state of the set of the switches is re-coded as a real
number, we attain:
M
imax X k−1 k
sj = 2 Sj , (1)
M This algorithm is a generalization of the linear Adaline[18]
k=0
where imax is the maximum value of the total current. In
this regard, the problem of non intrusive load monitoring can
be transformed in the determination of an approach for the
dynamical rule F , in the form:
s̃j = F (ω, ij ),
where the in advance vectors ij are constructed as
ij = (ij , ij+1 , · · · , ij+d−1 ), d is a parameter related to
the influence of the present state of the switch sj in the future
of ij and ω is a vector of parameters. This function provides
a relation between the present state of the switches and the
future values of the total current. Naturally, an approximation
of this function allows to estimate the activity of individual
loads given the actual value of the total current.
This strategy differs from the usual one employed in the
theory of dynamical systems in the construction of the state
vectors. In this case, instead of constructing vectors with
the current state and their predecessors, the state vectors,
which we have called in advance vectors, are constructed
with the current state and future values of the variable. This
is a consequence of the causal relationship between sn and in .
An efficient alternative to approximate F , is the kernel
regression method. In this approach the data is mapped to
a high dimensional space by ϕ(.) and F is fitted by a linear
combination of the ϕ(ij ) [17]. Then, by means of reproductive
kernels of Hilbert spaces, K(·, ·), it is possible to perform the
mapping and its inverse implicitly. So that:
N
F (ω, ij ) =
X
wk K(ij , ik ) + w0 . (2)
k=1
In our case, we use the Gaussian kernel
ku−vk2
− 2p2
K(u, v) = e ,
to perform the mapping and its inverse, being p the width of
a Gaussian function centered in every sample. The solution
to the linear problem that now appears, i.e. the estimation of
the w parameters, can be inferred using the kernel-Adaline
algorithm [11]:
Choose wk = a random number in [0, 1] ∀ k ∈ [0, N ] and η.
WHILE stopping criterion not met
FOR j = 1 to N
choose input pattern ij
calculate output of the kernel Adaline F (ω, ij ) =
PN
k=1 wk K(ij , ik ) + w0
update corresponding multipliers and bias by the rule:
wk ← wk + η(sj − F (ω, ij ))
END FOR
END WHILE
that allows to approximate non-linear functional relationships,
but using strategies for the solution of linear problems. This
algorithm minimizes the least mean squared cost function and
additionally, it has the advantage of being numerically robust
and conceptually simple.
IV. R ESULTS
In order to expose the performance of the designed strategy,
a network of four RLC loads with a chaotic switching is
simulated. In this case, a total of 2 × 103 data have been
generated. The data, is divided into two segments: one of 1350
points which will be used to estimate the parameters in (2) and
another 650 points intended for the validation of the approach.
The presentation of the attained results begins by exposing,
in Fig. 3, the convergence of the parameters of the kernel-
Adaline ω0 and one ωr , with r randomly chosen considering
the data from the training or modeling segment. In this figure,
the inset shows the evolution of the mean error of the switching
state prediction, defined as:
N
1 X (n)
E(n) = |si − s̃i |,
N i=1
(n)
where, s̃i is the prediction of the i-th switching state, in
the n-th iteration of the WHILE loop of the kernel-Adaline
algorithm.
Additionally, Fig. 4 shows the strategy’s performance. It il-
lustrates the quality of the predictions when using the proposed
model in the case of the data corresponding to the training
segment. Here, the continuous line shows the evolution of the
switching represented as in (1), and the dashed line shows
the modeling using (2) when d = 8. It is easy to note that,
 0.5
1.0
0.7
0.6
0.4 0.5
0.8

E(n)
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.3 0.1

sn ,s n
0.6

˜
0.0
ωr , ω0

0 100 200 300 400 500

0.2 n
0.4

0.1
0.2

0.0
0.0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
0 100 200 300 400 500

n n
Fig. 3. Adaline training showing the evolution of the parameter ω0 and ωr , Fig. 5. The continuous and dashed lines represents, the switching dynamic
with r randomly chosen. The inset shows the evolution of the modeling error. and it approximation, respectively, in the case of the validation segment.

1.0 Due to the lack of solid benchmarking tools to compare

the performance of different disaggregation strategies, the
0.8 comparison of these techniques is out of the scope of this
work.
0.6 Finally, it is worth mentioning that the NILM problem is
sn ,s n
˜

highly interesting, not only for its practical applications in

0.4 energy consumption efficiency, but also from the point of
view of dynamical systems theory. In this field, it represents
0.2 a complex problem of coupled linear systems of differential
equations, but not autonomous due to the involved complex
0.0
switching functions.
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200

n ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 4. The continuous and dashed line represents, the switching dynamic
and it approximation, respectively, in the case of the training segment.
this dimension is dependent on the sampling rate which is the
integration step in this case. Nevertheless, the study of this
relation is beyond the scope of this work.
Lastly, Fig. 5 exhibits the outcome for the case of the data
corresponding to the validation segment.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
A NILM scheme, based on nonlinear regression strategy and
implemented by means of the kernel-Adaline algorithm, has
been presented. This representation of NILM, as a non-linear
regression problem using kernel regression strategies, as far as
we know, represents a novelty in the treatment of the problem.
The numerical experiments suggests that although the fore-
cast accuracy is appropriate, the quality of the disaggregation
using this method depends on the τi parameter. This fact rep-
resents an interesting theoretical and computational problem
which guides future research.
Considering the characteristics of the proposed representa-
tion of the problem, the extension to the case of networks
with loads of another type or with more elements could be
addressed in a simple manner.
The authors would like to thank Universidad Técnica del
Norte (UTN) in Ibarra-Ecuador for the support to this work
under FICA research project: ”Design and implementation of
a NILM strategy based on artificial intelligence techniques”
(Diseño e implementación de un esquema de desagregación
de cargas no intrusivo basado en estrategias de inteligencia
artificial).
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