# OccuEMBED: Occupancy Extraction Merged with Building Energy Disaggregation for Occupant-Responsive Operation at Scale

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.05478 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.05478/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 50 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Apr 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Generating Diverse High-Fidelity Images with VQ-VAE-2](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.00446/) (2019)
- [KAN: Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.19756/) (2024)
- [On the Pitfalls of Heteroscedastic Uncertainty Estimation with Probabilistic Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09168/) (2022)
- [Pomegranate: fast and flexible probabilistic modeling in python](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00137/) (2017)
- [A hybrid-model approach for reducing the performance gap in building energy forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.00460/) (2022)
- [Data-Driven Key Performance Indicators and Datasets for Building Energy Flexibility: A Review and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.12252/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Buildings account for a significant share of global energy consumption and emissions, making it critical to operate them efficiently. As electricity grids become more volatile with renewable penetration, buildings must provide flexibility to support grid stability. Building automation plays a key role in enhancing efficiency and flexibility via centralized operations, but it must prioritize occupant-centric strategies to balance energy and comfort targets. However, incorporating occupant information into large-scale, centralized building operations remains challenging due to data limitations. We investigate the potential of using whole-building smart meter data to infer both occupancy and system operations. Integrating these insights into data-driven building energy analysis allows more occupant-centric energy-saving and flexibility at scale. Specifically, we propose OccuEMBED, a unified framework for occupancy inference and system-level load analysis. It combines two key components: a probabilistic occupancy profile generator, and a controllable and interpretable load disaggregator supported by Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks (KAN). This design embeds knowledge of occupancy patterns and load-occupancy-weather relationships into deep learning models. We conducted comprehensive evaluations to demonstrate its effectiveness across synthetic and real-world datasets compared to various occupancy inference baselines. OccuEMBED always achieved average F1 scores above 0.8 in discrete occupancy inference and RMSE within 0.1-0.2 for continuous occupancy ratios. We further demonstrate how OccuEMBED integrates with building load monitoring platforms to display occupancy profiles, analyze system-level operations, and inform occupant-responsive strategies. Our model lays a robust foundation in scaling occupant-centric building management systems to meet the challenges of an evolving energy system.