Efficient power scheduling in smart homes using a novel artificial ecosystem optimization technique considering two pricing schemes

Abstract

Abstract With emergence of automated environments, energy demand increased with unexpected ratio, especially total electricity consumed in the residential sector. This unexpected increase in demand in energy brings a challenging task of maintaining the balance between supply and demand. In this work, a robust artificial ecosystem-inspired optimizer based on demand-side management is proposed to provide the optimal scheduling pattern of smart homes. More precisely, the main objectives of the developed framework are: i) Shifting load from on-peak hours to off-peak hours while fulfilling the consumer intends to reduce electricity-bills. ii) Protect users comfort by improving the appliances waiting time. Artificial ecosystem optimizer (AEO) algorithm is a novel optimization technique inspired by the energy flocking between all living organisms in the ecosystem on earth. Demand side management (DSM) program is modeled as an optimization problem with constraints of starting and ending of appliances. The proposed optimization technique based DSM program is evaluated on two different pricing schemes with considering two operational time intervals (OTI). Extensive simulation cases are carried out to validate the effectiveness of the proposed optimizer based energy management scheme. AEO minimizes total electricity-bills while keeping the user comfort by producing optimum appliances scheduling pattern. Simulation results revealed that the proposed AEO achieved a minimization electricity-bill up to 10.95, 10.2% for RTP and 37.05% for CPP for the 12 and 60 min operational time interval (OTI), respectively, in comparison to other results achieved by other optimizers. On the other hand peak to average ratio (PAR) is reduced to 32.9% using RTP and 31.25% using CPP tariff.