An end-user perspective on smart home energy systems in the PowerMatching City demonstration project

In discussions on smart grids, it is often stated that residential end-users will play a more active role in the management of the electric power system. Experience in practice on how to empower end-users for such a role is however limited. This paper presents a field study in the first phase of the PowerMatching City project in which twenty-two households were equipped with demand-response-enabled heating systems and white goods. Although end-users were satisfied with the degree of living comfort afforded by the smart energy system, the user interface did not provide sufficient control and energy feedback to support an active contribution to the balancing of supply and demand. The full potential of demand response was thus not realized. The second phase of the project builds on these findings by design, implementation and evaluation of an improved user interface in combination with two demand response propositions

A Non-intrusive Heuristic for Energy Messaging Intervention Modelled using a Novel Agent-based Approach

In response to the increased energy consumption in residential buildings, various efforts have been devoted to increase occupant awareness using energy feedback systems. However, it was shown that feedback provided by these systems is not enough to inform occupant actions to reduce energy consumption. Another approach is to control energy consumption using automated energy management systems. The automatic control of appliances takes-out the occupant sense of control, which is proved to be uncomfortable in many cases. This paper proposes an energy messaging intervention that keeps the control for occupants whilst supporting them with actionable messages. The messages inform occupants about energy waste incidents happening in their house in real-time, which enables occupants to take actions to reduce their consumption. Besides, a heuristic is defined to make the intervention non-intrusive by controlling the rate and time of the messages sent to occupants. The proposed intervention is evaluated in a novel layered agentbased model. The first layer of the model generates detailed energy consumption and realistic occupant activities. The second layer is designed to simulate the peer pressure effect on the energy consumption behaviour of the individuals. The third layer is a customisable layer that simulates energy interventions. The implemented intervention in this paper is the proposed non-intrusive messaging intervention. A number of scenarios are presented in the experiments to show how the model can be used to evaluate the proposed intervention and achieve energy efficiency targets

Integrating renewable energy resources into the smart grid: recent developments in information and communication technologies

Rising energy costs, losses in the present-day electricity grid, risks from nuclear power generation, and global environmental changes are motivating a transformation of the conventional ways of generating electricity. Globally, there is a desire to rely more on renewable energy resources (RERs) for electricity generation. RERs reduce green house gas emissions and may have economic benefits, e.g., through applying demand side management with dynamic pricing so as to shift loads from fossil fuel-based generators to RERs. The electricity grid is presently evolving towards an intelligent grid, the so-called smart grid (SG). One of the major goals of the future SG is to move towards 100% electricity generation from RERs, i.e., towards a 100% renewable grid. However, the disparate, intermittent, and typically widely geographically distributed nature of RERs complicates the integration of RERs into the SG. Moreover, individual RERs have generally lower capacity than conventional fossil-fuel plants, and these RERs are based on a wide spectrum of different technologies. In this article, we give an overview of recent efforts that aim to integrate RERs into the SG. We outline the integration of RERs into the SG along with their supporting communication networks. We also discuss ongoing projects that seek to integrate RERs into the SG around the globe. Finally, we outline future research directions on integrating RERs into the SG

Facilitating the Growth of Local Energy Communities

Energietransitie staat hoog op de agenda. Op de route naar een duurzamer energiesysteem zien we de laatste jaren een grote toename van het aantal lokale energie communities. Deze energie communities streven naar duurzaamheid door middel van het stimuleren van energiebesparingen en het realiseren van lokale duurzame energieopwekking, samen met en voor de deelnemende leden. Echter veel van deze prosumer communities missen de kennis en expertise om strategische beslissingen te kunnen nemen die noodzakelijk zijn om hun ambitieuze doelstellingen te behalen. In dit onderzoek, gebaseerd op een ontwerpgerichte onderzoeksmethodiek, zijn case studies uitgevoerd om het groeipad van prosumer communities te exploreren en te begrijpen. Dit leidde tot het ontwerp van een decision enhancement environment: de prosumer community shopping mall. Deze shopping mall biedt een rijke verzameling aan diensten, kennis en expertise. Prosumer communities, en hun leden, worden geleidelijk door de shopping mall gevoerd, waarbij gaandeweg die diensten worden aangeboden die behoren bij de ontwikkelingsfase waarin de communities verkeren. De dienstenaanbieders in de mall maken gebruik van richtlijnen en standaard bouwblokken om hun diensten samen te stellen, zodat de kwaliteit van dienstverlening en de interoperabiliteit van het dienstenaanbod in de mall worden gegarandeerd. Als regisseur en beheerder van genoemde shopping mall faciliteiten speelt de aanbieder van de mall een belangrijke rol.Meerdere prosumer communities en experts uit het energiewerkveld hebben de prosumer community shopping mall geëvalueerd. Zij concludeerden dat de shopping mall een bruikbaar en gebruiksvriendelijk concept is dat prosumer communities ondersteunt in hun groeipad