Demand‐Side Response/Home Energy Management

Abstract This chapter describes demand‐side issues specific to home energy management. Two key issues pertain to home energy management: (i) supporting a power network operation by controlling the consumption of electricity and (ii) providing optimum household operation for devices and appliances (e.g., cost of electricity). To achieve the desired performance from the cooperation of various devices and applications, automated control via a home energy management system (HEMS) is required. HEMS is classified into three distinct categories based on physical form and allocation of the appropriate control algorithm. Then, elemental technologies are summarized, which are combined with HEMS to constitute a global energy management system (EMS). To showcase the effectiveness of this system, we present some use cases of HEMS as well as experiments conducted at the EMS Shinjuku R&D Center established in Waseda University. At this site, four smart houses were built and equipped with an air conditioner, a battery, electric vehicles/plug‐in hybrid vehicle and charger, a heat‐pump water heater, a fuel cell cogeneration system, and a solar inverter. The potential for expansion of HEMS beyond the function of energy management through collaboration with different disciplines is mentioned.