Time and Device Based Priority Induced Demand Side Load Management in Smart Home with Consumer Budget Limit

In demand side management (DSM) scheduling of appliances based on consumer-defined priorities is an important task of a home energy management controller (EMC). This paper presents a DSM technique that is capable of controlling loads within a smart home considering time-varying appliances prior- ities. An evolutionary priority algorithm (EPA) was developed based on three postulations that allow time-varying priorities to be quantified in time and device-based features. Based on the input data considering the appliance's power ratings, its time of use, and absolute user comfort values the EPA is able to generate an optimal energy consumption pattern which would give maximum comfort at a predetermined user budget. A cost per unit comfort (χ) index, which relates the consumer expenditure to the achievable comfort is also demonstrated. To test the applicability of the proposed EPA, two budget scenarios of 1.5/day and 2.0/day are performed. The simulation results revealed that the proposed EPA obtained an optimal comfort value for the high budget with increased (χ).