1. A method of identifying electric load types of a plurality of different electric loads, said method comprising: providing a self-organizing map load feature database of a plurality of different electric load types and a plurality of neurons, each of said different electric load types corresponding to a number of said neurons; employing a weight vector for each of said neurons; sensing a voltage signal and a current signal for each of said different electric loads; determining a load feature vector comprising at least four different load features from said sensed voltage signal and said sensed current signal for a corresponding one of said different electric loads; and identifying by a processor one of said different electric load types by relating the load feature vector to the neurons of said self-organizing map load feature database by identifying the weight vector of one of said neurons corresponding to said one of said different electric load types that is a minimal distance to the load feature vector.