A data model and file format to represent and store high frequency energy monitoring and disaggregation datasets

There is a generalized consensus in the Non-Intrusive Load Monitoring research community on the importance of public datasets for improving this research field. Still, despite the considerable efforts to release public data, what is currently available suffers from serious issues, among which is the lack of widely accepted data models and common interfaces to access the currently available and future datasets. This paper proposes the Energy Monitoring and Disaggregation Data Format (EMD-DF64). EMD-DF64 is a data model, file format, and application programming interface developed to provide a unique interface to create, manage, and access high-frequency (≥ 1 Hz) electric energy consumption datasets. More precisely, the present paper describes the data model and its respective implementation, which was done by leveraging the well-known Sony WAVE64 format that supports the storage of audio data and metadata annotations.