An integrated smart home energy management model based on a pyramid taxonomy for residential houses with photovoltaic-battery systems

Abstract

Smart home energy management (SHEM) with residential photovoltaic (PV)-battery systems is a complicated issue with different facets. An integrated SHEM model covering the essential functions is missing. Meanwhile, residential PV-battery systems' optimal operations with renewable energy exchanges and imperfect forecasts are still open challenges. In this study, the research activities in SHEM are firstly organized by a pyramid with four functional layers: (i) Monitoring; (ii) Analyzing and forecasting; (iii) Scheduling; and (iv) Coordinating, which can serve as a standard pathway for developing SHEM. Second, guided by the pyramid taxonomy, an integrated SHEM model is developed for residential houses with PV-battery systems. Assuming a perfect Monitoring layer, we obtain the probabilistic load/PV forecasts and user preference vectors of shiftable appliances based on historical data. Then, we develop a two-stage stochastic programming model for optimal scheduling of single houses with a grid-connected PV-battery system, incorporating the probabilistic forecasts and user preference vectors. A retail electricity market with day-ahead (DA) and real-time (RT) markets is employed for leveraging imperfect forecasts. Finally, we design a distributed coordinating algorithm - Asynchronous Scheduling and Iterative Pricing for PV power-sharing among multiple prosumers based on the single-house scheduling model. Numerical simulations based on realistic loads and PV generation data validated the two-stage stochastic programming model's economic superiority and the distributed PV power-sharing approach compared with the rule-based dispatching and selfish scheduling strategies. We concluded that 1) the modeling of load/PV forecast uncertainties is valuable than averaging or ignoring them, 2) the two-stage stochastic programming model and the DA-RT retail electricity market are beneficial for utilizing imperfect forecasts, and 3) coordinating multiple prosumers could benefit each household by sharing PV and battery investments for revenue or trading with local small prosumers for cost reductions.