Sample Efficient Home Power Anomaly Detection in Real Time Using Semi-Supervised Learning

Anomaly detection in home power monitoring can be categorized into two main types: detection of electrical theft, leakage, or nontechnical loss and monitoring anomalies in the daily activities of residents. Focusing on the application and practicality of anomaly detection, we propose sample efficient home power anomaly detection (SEPAD) with improved monitoring performance in terms of electricity usage as well as changes in the daily living activities of residents via provision of detailed feedback. SEPAD consists of two classifiers: an appliance pattern matching classifier (APMC) and an energy consumption habit classifier (ECHC). The APMC uses a single-source separation framework based on a semi-supervised support vector machine (semi-SVM) model. This semi-supervised learning method requires only a small amount of labeled data to achieve high accuracy in near real time and is a sample efficient detection method. The hidden Markov model (HMM)-based ECHC improves the rationality of SEPAD by providing anomaly detection functionality with respect to the daily activities of householders, especially the elderly and residents in developing areas. When SEPAD detects the appearance of an unknown pattern or known patterns contrary to the household’s electricity usage habits, it triggers an alarm. SEPAD was applied to monitor power consumption data from Mkalama, a rural area in Tanzania with 52 households containing nearly 150 occupants connected to a solar powered off-grid network. The results of the practical test demonstrate the high accuracy and practicality of the proposed method.