Development and Validation of a Transient Event Detector

The nonintrusive load monitor (NILM) determines the operating schedule of the major electrical loads in a building from measurements made at the utility service entry. This paper describes techniques used to develop, test, and implement a transient event detector that extends the applicability of NILM to challenging commercial and industrial sites. Software has been developed that can flexibly and quickly simulate the electrical harness and loads in a building. Data from this simulator were used to design a transient event detection algorithm. This algorithm has been implemented on a real-time digital signal processing system that can be used to monitor actual loads in operation. The performance of the algorithm is illustrated with results from the prototype transient event detector.