Smart Household Electricity Usage Optimization Using MPC and MILP

This paper suggests scheduling of electric appliances in a smart household if a Time of Use pricing scheme is applied by the utility company. The algorithms discussed in this paper enable the control and the balancing of the energy consumption to ensure minimal electricity costs of the household. The optimal appliances’ schedule and the energy consumption pattern are the results of a two-level optimization strategy. The home appliances are scheduled based on a Mixed Integer Linear Programming approach. If an electric vehicle (EV) is also present in the household, its charging is scheduled to achieve the State of Charge desired by its departure time. The EV battery is also considered as power storage device. The second level is reserved to control the electric heating system with a Model Predictive Controller (MPC) considering the results of the first optimization level as energy constraints. The MPC may use the EV battery as a power source where the Vehicle-to-Home technology is adopted. Moreover, we present an EV scenario to discuss the battery lifetime. Simulation results show the energy balancing along with an optimal electricity cost based on the strategy proposed.