Application of load monitoring in appliances' energy management - A review

Energy monitoring is one of the important aspects of the energy management, as such there is a need to monitor the power consumption of a premises before planning some of the technical measures to minimize the energy consumption. This paper presents the current state of art of appliances' energy management through Intrusive Load Monitoring (ILM) and Non-intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM), ILM is referred to as distributive sensing and NILM is based on single point sensing. In an effort to explore the recent trend in Energy Management for researchers in the area, various techniques of Home Energy Management (HEM) using ILM and NILM have been analyzed and categorized. Different contributions made by the researchers have been highlighted together with some techniques of reducing power consumption of a building for cost saving and greener environment. This study reveal that there are issues concerning load monitoring and load management that need the attention; issues such as more accurate recognition and the need for monitoring system that can recognize as many kind of loads as possible. More efforts to apply NILM in appliances' energy management is also required. Finally there is need for promoting the energy management culture among the electricity consumers whether in homes, offices or industries. The study will help the researchers in the area to have a clear vision of the recent trends in the area.