Real time optimal schedule controller for home energy management system using new binary backtracking search algorithm

In the domestic sector, increased energy consumption of home appliances has become a growing issue. Thus, reducing and scheduling energy usage is the key for any home energy management system (HEMS). To better match demand and supply, many utilities offer residential demand response program to change the pattern of power consumption of a residential customer by curtailing or shifting their energy use during the peak time period. In the present study, real time optimal schedule controller for HEMS is proposed using a new binary backtracking search algorithm (BBSA) to manage the energy consumption. The BBSA gives optimal schedule for home devices in order to limit the demand of total load and schedule the operation of home appliances at specific times during the day. Hardware prototype of smart sockets and graphical user interface software were designed to demonstrate the proposed HEMS and to provide the interface between loads and scheduler, respectively. A set of the most common home appliances, namely, air conditioner, water heater, refrigerator, and washing machine has been considered to be controlled. The proposed scheduling algorithm is applied under two cases in which the first case considers operation at weekday from 4 to 11 pm and the second case considers weekend at different time of the day. Experimental results of the proposed BBSA schedule controller are compared with the binary particle swarm optimization (BPSO) schedule controller to verify the accuracy of the developed controller in the HEMS. The BBSA schedule controller provides better results compared to that of the BPSO schedule controller in reducing the energy consumption and the total electricity bill and save the energy at peak hours of certain loads.