Development of a Home Energy Management System in Smart Grids: A Laboratory Test-bed and a Mobile Application

The current electricity grid in Morocco is facing challenges due to its conventional nature. The conventional sources of energy used are one of the major participants in pollution, and they are inefficient and unreliable in securing the national energy security. Morocco is energy dependent as it imports about 97% of its energy needs. To improve the current situation, the energy in the residential sector needs to be managed in order to reduce peak demand, protect the environment, reduce cost, avoid energy deficit, involve consumer, and efficiently use its renewable energy potential. This paper tackles the building blocks of smart grids, namely, the residential microgrid. The paper focuses on developing a home energy management system using a laboratory test-bed and a mobile application on smart devices (phones, tablets, etc.) in order to establish a two-way flow of power and data, and manage residual energy. The design, architecture and implementation of the mobile application and the test-bed are detailed. Test-bed hardware components are described. Methods for testing the application are suggested, and finally, algorithms for home energy demand optimization are presented as an extension of the home energy management mobile application features.