The ENERscheme is a multi-objective IoT energy management system that can improve the performance of the building microgrid by considering the real time electricity price, the current consumed electric energy by each house appliance, the actual and the expected energy generated by home renewable energy sources, the state-of-charge and the energy price of the battery storage system, the weather forecast, several house construction characteristics, as well as, the user preferences and habits.
Specifically, the ENERscheme provides the proper online task scheduling and control of the electric loads, and ensures the optimal exploitation of the energy generated by home renewable energy sources and the proper regulation of the battery system operation, so as, reduction of the electricity utility bill and limitation of the carbon emissions are attained, since both energy saving and protection of the battery’s lifespan are accomplished.
- provides the optimal time scheduling of each programmable appliance without affecting the resident’ day-life comfort,
- properly regulates the operation of the controllable appliances, so as the value of the reference variable is within the upper and lower limits set by the residents, and
- decides for the proper utilization of the energy generated by the house renewable energy sources, so as it is more profitable for the building, i.e. self-consumed it by the house, temporarily store it to the battery in order to be recovered when it is more profitable for the house or inject and sell it to the grid.
The ENERscheme gives the proper answer to one of the most challenging buildings’ energy problems of several multifaced and sometimes contradictory objectives, that is the energy management. It is an integrated control strategy based on genetic algorithms that can provide an optimal balance between the objectives of energy saving, comfort of the building residents and maximum exploitation of the generated electric energy by the renewable energy sources through the proper utilization of a battery storage system.
The ENERscheme improves the performance of the building’s microgrid so as it is more economically beneficial for the residents by upgrading the role of the battery storage system with respect to the programmable and controllable loads and the home renewable energy sources, and also, provides assistance in keeping the residents comfort in high level. Thus, considering the residents’ preferences and habits, and a high number of variables, the ENERscheme: