1. A system for the automatic identification of a device or appliance, the system comprising: at least one sensor 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 energy consumption by the device or appliance; an analyzer in communication with said at least one sensor and configured to receive therefrom reports of the monitored electrical quantity, and to automatically identify the device or appliance by analyzing the evolution in time of the monitored electric quantity, wherein said analyzing comprises: calculating a cross-correlation 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 candidate list 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.