Circuit breaker forensics for power distribution units

A power distribution apparatus, comprising:

• a housing;
• a power inlet;
• a plurality of electrical outlets, wherein each of the plurality of electrical outlets (a) is adapted to provision power to an associated electronic device and (b) comprises an associated current sensor;
• at least one overcurrent protection device;
• and
• at least one processor coupled to the at least one overcurrent protection device and each associated current sensor, said at least one processor configured to:
• receive a signal that represents current from each associated current sensor;
• compute, based on the signal, a current characteristic for each associated current sensor;
• detect a trip event associated with the at least one overcurrent protection device;
• and
• determine, after the trip event has been detected, whether at least one computed current characteristic exceeded a selected threshold prior to detection of the trip event,
• wherein, upon said at least one processor determining that two or more computed current characteristics exceeded the selected threshold prior to detection of the trip event, the at least one processor being further configured to:
• identify two or more suspect electrical outlets corresponding to the two or more computed current characteristics;
• and
• transmit, to a location remote from the power distribution apparatus, an identifier associated with an associated electrical outlet of said two or more suspect electrical outlets that had a highest value of the two or more computed current characteristics.