Load disaggregation using harmonic analysis and regularized optimization

In this paper, we present a load disaggregation technique that uses regularized optimization together with harmonic frequency signatures of appliances. The benefits of our technique are twofold: 1) The regularized optimization is faster than integer programming; and 2) The harmonic frequency signatures allow us to disaggregate the loads using as few as 10 cycles (equaling as little as 200 milliseconds) of samples, instead of having to wait for state changes from appliances or weekly usage pattern to emerge. We test our proposed technique in proof-of-concept experiments and show that our technique returns accurate disaggregation results.