Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring in Smart Grids: A Comprehensive Review

TL;DR

This comprehensive review of Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) discusses its importance in smart grids, provides a dataset compilation, categorizes approaches, and identifies research gaps to guide future innovations.

Contribution

It offers a global dataset compilation, categorizes NILM methods, and highlights research gaps to inform future NILM research directions.

Findings

Compiled a comprehensive dataset table for NILM research.

Categorized NILM approaches based on technology and data requirements.

Identified key gaps and future research directions in NILM.

Abstract

Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM) is pivotal in today's energy landscape, offering vital solutions for energy conservation and efficient management. Its growing importance in enhancing energy savings and understanding consumer behavior makes it a pivotal technology for addressing global energy challenges. This paper delivers an in-depth review of NILM, highlighting its critical role in smart homes and smart grids. The significant contributions of this study are threefold: Firstly, it compiles a comprehensive global dataset table, providing a valuable tool for researchers and engineers to select appropriate datasets for their NILM studies. Secondly, it categorizes NILM approaches, simplifying the understanding of various algorithms by focusing on technologies, label data requirements, feature usage, and monitoring states. Lastly, by identifying gaps in current NILM research, this work sets a clear direction for future studies, discussing potential areas of innovation.