Development of cluster-based energy management scheme for residential usages in the smart grid community

Abstract

Several efforts have been taken to promote clean energy towards a sustainable and green economy. Existing sources of electricity present some complications concerning consumers, utility owners, and the environment. Utility operators encourage household applicants to employ residential energy management (REM) systems. Renewable energy sources (RESs), energy storage systems (ESS), and optimal energy allocation strategies are used to resolve these difficulties. In this paper, the development of a cluster-based energy management scheme for residential consumers of a smart grid community is proposed to reduce energy use and monetary cost. Normally, residential consumers deal with household appliances with various operating time slots depending on consumer preferences. A simulator is designed and developed using C++ software to resolve the residential consumer’s REM problem. The benefits of the RESs, ESS, and optimal energy allocation techniques are analyzed by taking in account three different scenarios. Extensive case studies are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed cluster-based energy management scheme. It is demonstrated that the proposed method can save energy and costs up to 45% and 56% compared to the existing methods. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland