A system for the automatic identification of a device or appliance (105a-105c) comprises: at least one sensor (110) configured to be associatable with the device or appliance to be identified, and to monitor an evolution in time of at least one electrical quantity indicative of a consumption of energy by the device or appliance; an analyzer (110;115;125) in communication relationship with the at least one sensor and configured to receive therefrom reports (215) of the monitored electrical quantity, the analyzer being further configured to automatically identify the device or appliance by analyzing (220) the evolution in time of the monitored electric quantity, The analysis comprises: calculating a cross-correlation (530,555) between the evolution in time of the monitored electric quantity and at least one reference pattern representative of at least one sample device or appliance; inserting the at least one sample device or appliance in a list of candidate devices or appliances in case a value related to the calculated cross-correlation is above a predetermined threshold; in case more than one sample device or appliance is included in the candidate list, identifying the device or appliance by performing a selection among the candidate devices or appliances based on characteristic parameters related to the respective calculated cross- correlations and different from said value.