Optimal scheduling of appliances through residential energy management

Residential energy management is an essential component of the smart power grid, which enables active participation from residential end users in reducing peak demand. Through appliance scheduling, the shiftable appliances can be shifted from peak hours to off-peak hours and their operation can be spread over a longer time period to reduce excessive energy consumption at a certain time. However, the appliance scheduling operation also needs to consider customer preferences and satisfaction for achieving the best results of such initiatives. In this respect, we consider an optimization problem that can minimize energy consumption while not causing uncomfortable delay to the customer. The solution method operates in real time to obtain the information on renewable generation, as well as appliance status and based on these, optimizes the energy allocation for different appliances. The results demonstrate that optimum scheduling can achieve energy savings compared to the case with non-optimal scheduling for four different days in Australian weather conditions and reduce electricity bill for the end user.