Adaptive Model-based Control for Cost-aware Household Appliances

Abstract

As a step towards sustainable energy management systems, energy providers use various demand side management techniques to reduce fluctuations in consumer energy demand. Dynamic pricing schemes encourage consumers to shift their energy usage patterns from peak hours towards off-peak periods, but here usually the active participation of consumers is anticipated. Smart household devices, which can autonomously shift their time of operation, can efficiently support such demand side management techniques. In this paper an adaptive model-based control scheme is proposed to create intelligent cost-aware household appliances, which can change their behaviour to minimize the cost of consumed energy and at the same time provide the required quality of service. The controller utilizes the dynamically changing energy price list, published ahead by the energy provider, thus it cooperatively supports demand side management. The proposed methods are evaluated in a case study, utilizing a household refrigerator. The proposed adaptive model predictive controller can save 5-10% of the energy bill, according to simulation results.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Keywords

• Cost-aware household appliances
• Energy
• Adaptive modelling
• Model-based control
• Refrigerator.