A system characterizes and identifies one of a plurality of different operating modes of a number of electric loads. The system includes a processor; a voltage sensor providing a voltage signal for one of the electric loads to the processor; a current sensor providing a current signal for the one electric load to the processor; and a routine executed by the processor and structured to characterize the different operating modes using steady state and voltage-current trajectory features determined from the voltage and current signals, and to identify a particular one of the different operating modes based on a plurality of operating mode membership functions of the steady state and voltage-current trajectory features.