NILM-A Smarter Tactical Decision Aid

This paper presents results of Nonintrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) aboard an active US Coast Guard vessel. The NILM system monitors ship electricity consumption at centralized points in the ship’s electrical distribution network. The NILM analyzes the electrical consumption data to extract operational information about individual equipment through automated signal processing and transient identification techniques. In contrast to a distributed load sensor network, the NILM enables lowercost and more robust monitoring of the shipboard electrical system loads. Data collected by this NILM system during at-sea ship operations was used to develop new applications in energy scorekeeping, fault detection, and tactical decision-making. Specifically, this paper discusses NILM use for monitoring and analyzing load demands of the ship’s service diesel generators, verifying theoretical Electric Power Load Analysis (EPLA) load factors using the disaggregated load information, and condition-monitoring