Optimization-Based Energy Disaggregation: A Constrained Multi-Objective Approach

Recently, optimization-based energy disaggregation (ED) algorithms have been gaining significance due to their capability to perform disaggregation with minimal information compared to the pattern-based ED algorithms, which demand large amounts of data for training. However, the performances of optimization-based ED algorithms depend on the problem formulation that includes an objective function(s) and/or constraints. In the literature, ED has been formulated as a constrained single-objective problem or an unconstrained multi-objective problem considering disaggregation error, sparsity of state switching, on/off switching, etc. In this work, the ED problem is formulated as a constrained multi-objective problem (CMOP), where the constraints related to the operational characteristics of the devices are included. In addition, the formulated CMOP is solved using a constrained multi-objective evolutionary algorithm (CMOEA). The performance of the proposed formulation is compared with those of three high-performing ED formulations in the literature based on the appliance-level and overall indicators. The results show that the proposed formulation improves both appliance-level and overall ED results.