Multi-Agent DRL-based Multi-Objective Demand Response Optimization for Real-Time Energy Management in Smart Homes

The integration of multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) in adaptive and intelligent home energy management systems (AI-HEMS) enhances real-time energy management by enabling intelligent decision-making among multiple agents to optimize various problems. This approach allows smart homes to dynamically respond to changes in energy demand, pricing, and user preferences. The integration of Internet of Things (IoT) devices with AI-HEMS has been promoted to efficiently manage energy resources and maintain occupants’ comfort, where IoT devices collect data on energy consumption, usage patterns, and environmental conditions. However, ensuring trade-offs between conflicting optimization objectives, such as reducing energy consumption and electricity prices, and maximizing users’ comfort levels is challenging. In this paper, we propose a MADRL-based multi-objective demand response (MODR) optimization framework to efficiently manage and control the energy consumption of smart homes. The proposed approach aims to simultaneously reduce energy costs and maximize users’ comfort, improving the overall reliability of energy systems. We first formulate the MODR optimization problem as MDP and then adopt the MADRL algorithm to solve it. The simulation results demonstrate that our proposed DR optimization approach can effectively balance the trade-off between energy cost and user comfort levels, resulting in improved energy efficiency compared to benchmark approaches.