6,963 research outputs found
Data-driven control of micro-climate in buildings: an event-triggered reinforcement learning approach
Smart buildings have great potential for shaping an energy-efficient,
sustainable, and more economic future for our planet as buildings account for
approximately 40% of the global energy consumption. Future of the smart
buildings lies in using sensory data for adaptive decision making and control
that is currently gloomed by the key challenge of learning a good control
policy in a short period of time in an online and continuing fashion. To tackle
this challenge, an event-triggered -- as opposed to classic time-triggered --
paradigm, is proposed in which learning and control decisions are made when
events occur and enough information is collected. Events are characterized by
certain design conditions and they occur when the conditions are met, for
instance, when a certain state threshold is reached. By systematically
adjusting the time of learning and control decisions, the proposed framework
can potentially reduce the variance in learning, and consequently, improve the
control process. We formulate the micro-climate control problem based on
semi-Markov decision processes that allow for variable-time state transitions
and decision making. Using extended policy gradient theorems and temporal
difference methods in a reinforcement learning set-up, we propose two learning
algorithms for event-triggered control of micro-climate in buildings. We show
the efficacy of our proposed approach via designing a smart learning thermostat
that simultaneously optimizes energy consumption and occupants' comfort in a
test building
How Sustainable is Machine Learning in Energy Applications? – The Sustainable Machine Learning Balance Sheet
Information Systems play a central role in the energy sector for achieving climate targets. With increasing digitization and data availability in the energy sector, data-driven machine learning (ML) approaches emerged, showing high potential. So far, research has focused on optimizing ML approaches’ prediction performance. However, this is a one-sided perspective. ML approaches require large computation times and capacities leading to high energy consumption. With the goal of sustainable energy systems, research on ML approaches should be extended to include the application’s energy consumption. ML solutions must be designed in such a way that the resulting savings in energy (and emissions) are greater than the energy consumption caused using the ML solution. To address this need, we develop the Sustainable Machine Learning Balance Sheet as a framework allowing to holistically evaluate and develop sustainable ML solutions which we validated in a case study and through expert interviews
Machine Learning for Smart and Energy-Efficient Buildings
Energy consumption in buildings, both residential and commercial, accounts
for approximately 40% of all energy usage in the U.S., and similar numbers are
being reported from countries around the world. This significant amount of
energy is used to maintain a comfortable, secure, and productive environment
for the occupants. So, it is crucial that the energy consumption in buildings
must be optimized, all the while maintaining satisfactory levels of occupant
comfort, health, and safety. Recently, Machine Learning has been proven to be
an invaluable tool in deriving important insights from data and optimizing
various systems. In this work, we review the ways in which machine learning has
been leveraged to make buildings smart and energy-efficient. For the
convenience of readers, we provide a brief introduction of several machine
learning paradigms and the components and functioning of each smart building
system we cover. Finally, we discuss challenges faced while implementing
machine learning algorithms in smart buildings and provide future avenues for
research at the intersection of smart buildings and machine learning
San Francisco Bay: Preparing for the next level
This report provides new insights on the impacts climate change poses on San Francisco Bay, the opportunities this challenge brings and some potential guidelines on how to move forward, as the Bay Area continues to position itself in leading the way nationally and internationally on climate change adaptation. This report is also a landmark in the cooperation between the Netherlands and California on climate change adaptation. A team of professionals from both sides of the ocean has worked on this projec
Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Data Anomaly Detection, Classification, Localization, and Mitigation: A Review, Challenges, and Path Forward
Advancements in digital automation for smart grids have led to the
installation of measurement devices like phasor measurement units (PMUs),
micro-PMUs (-PMUs), and smart meters. However, a large amount of data
collected by these devices brings several challenges as control room operators
need to use this data with models to make confident decisions for reliable and
resilient operation of the cyber-power systems. Machine-learning (ML) based
tools can provide a reliable interpretation of the deluge of data obtained from
the field. For the decision-makers to ensure reliable network operation under
all operating conditions, these tools need to identify solutions that are
feasible and satisfy the system constraints, while being efficient,
trustworthy, and interpretable. This resulted in the increasing popularity of
physics-informed machine learning (PIML) approaches, as these methods overcome
challenges that model-based or data-driven ML methods face in silos. This work
aims at the following: a) review existing strategies and techniques for
incorporating underlying physical principles of the power grid into different
types of ML approaches (supervised/semi-supervised learning, unsupervised
learning, and reinforcement learning (RL)); b) explore the existing works on
PIML methods for anomaly detection, classification, localization, and
mitigation in power transmission and distribution systems, c) discuss
improvements in existing methods through consideration of potential challenges
while also addressing the limitations to make them suitable for real-world
applications
Artificial Intelligence based Anomaly Detection of Energy Consumption in Buildings: A Review, Current Trends and New Perspectives
Enormous amounts of data are being produced everyday by sub-meters and smart
sensors installed in residential buildings. If leveraged properly, that data
could assist end-users, energy producers and utility companies in detecting
anomalous power consumption and understanding the causes of each anomaly.
Therefore, anomaly detection could stop a minor problem becoming overwhelming.
Moreover, it will aid in better decision-making to reduce wasted energy and
promote sustainable and energy efficient behavior. In this regard, this paper
is an in-depth review of existing anomaly detection frameworks for building
energy consumption based on artificial intelligence. Specifically, an extensive
survey is presented, in which a comprehensive taxonomy is introduced to
classify existing algorithms based on different modules and parameters adopted,
such as machine learning algorithms, feature extraction approaches, anomaly
detection levels, computing platforms and application scenarios. To the best of
the authors' knowledge, this is the first review article that discusses anomaly
detection in building energy consumption. Moving forward, important findings
along with domain-specific problems, difficulties and challenges that remain
unresolved are thoroughly discussed, including the absence of: (i) precise
definitions of anomalous power consumption, (ii) annotated datasets, (iii)
unified metrics to assess the performance of existing solutions, (iv) platforms
for reproducibility and (v) privacy-preservation. Following, insights about
current research trends are discussed to widen the applications and
effectiveness of the anomaly detection technology before deriving future
directions attracting significant attention. This article serves as a
comprehensive reference to understand the current technological progress in
anomaly detection of energy consumption based on artificial intelligence.Comment: 11 Figures, 3 Table
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