2016 International Conference on Consumer Electronics-Taiwan
IoT Based Energy Management for Residential Area
Raafat O. Aburukba, Member, IEEE, A. R. Al-Ali, Senior Member, IEEE, Taha Landolsi, Senior
Member, IEEE, Mohammed Rashid, and Rizwan Hassan
Abstract--One of the major challenges in today’s electric grid is
the ability to meet the rising energy demands. This work presents
a conceptual model that closes the cycle between the electric
utility and residential consumers through defining rules and
objectives that govern the behavior of the planning and
distribution in the electric grid. Each home appliance, utility
server, homeowner, and operator is considered as an object with
a unique address. A prototype is implemented and tested to proof
the concept.
I. INTRODUCTION
The classical one-way power distribution to consumers is
not adequate to the changing and rising energy demand for the
21st century. Smart grids is one of emerging concepts that
integrate the traditional electrical grid with the development of
information and telecommunication technologies to improve
the efficiency of power generation, transmission, distribution,
and consumption [1]-[4] . One of the key features of the smart
grid is the integration of renewable and storage energy
resources at the consumption side [2]-[5]. Another key feature
is to enable consumers and utility to communicate with each
other in order to share the responsibility of managing the
power flow and consumption [2]-[5].
Nowadays, a communication protocol for home
automation and energy management is becoming possible by
utilizing the Internet of Things (IoT). Home appliances, as
well as renewable and storage energy devices can be
considered as objects. Moreover, homeowners’ mobile
handsets, as well as utility application servers can be
considered as objects. This enables the exchange of data and
commands with connected devices such as smart meters and
utility services [5], i.e. machine to machine or human to
machine or utility server to machine. The smart home is
distinguished by three main characteristics: 1) The ability to
sense and monitor changing conditions; 2) Appliances and
devices have the ability to communicate and interact with
people, systems, and other objects; 3) The ability to make
quantitative decisions based on defined knowledge.
This work presents an approach for closing the cycle
between the electric utility and consumers in residential area.
The approach enables both entities to model their preferences
though defining rules and objectives. This allows for existing
or new decision making algorithms to utilize the defined
knowledge (rules and objectives) to govern the decision
making for the power electricity planning and distribution.
Such approach should help to eliminate power blackouts
within housing communities. In cases where a specific house
is overloading the consumption of the power grid, a consumer
can receive a warning on consumption behavior and
recommendation on appliance usage. Decisions on the power
planning and distribution can be automated based on the
defined electric utility and consumer rules. For example, the
978-1-5090-2073-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
system can decide to shut down the power from a home, or
power off specific appliances to reduce the power load
consumption from a specific home based on the model
generated and agreed on by the consumer.
II. PROPOSED APPROACH
Figure 1, presents the conceptual model for the electric
power grid that mimics the electric utility’s and consumers’
models. The model contains services that allow the entities to
model and manage their rules, and objectives. The model
presents the knowledge that governs the decision making
algorithm for the electric power planning and distribution, as
well as, the power management for home use. The model
service contains three main components:
• Meta model: this includes the structure to define the rules
and objectives.
• Model instance: uses the meta-model to enable the user to
define model instances.
• Model management: enables managing the defined models.
Objectives can be modeled as an optimization problem [6]
to represent a quantitative model. Objectives in the
optimization model are decision criteria which can be modeled
to maximize or/and minimize some function (i.e. Minimize
cost for the consumer). Constraints are set of conditions which
must be satisfied. Rules are described as statements that define
or constrain some aspects of the consumer or the electric
utility. A home rule for example is intended to assert home
arrangement or to control or influence the smart home
behavior. A rule engine evaluates and executes rules, which
are expressed as “if-then” statements. The strength of home
rules lies in their ability to separate the knowledge definition
from the implementation logic. Hence, the knowledge
definition can change without an effect on the logic of the
implementation. A rule is composed of two parts, conditions
and actions. When the condition is met, the action is executed
[7]. The concept of rules captures precise logic for the
consumer and the electric utility. Rules can be classified:
• Resource Rules: are related to the consumer resources
within their home. This rule can present a specific zone
within a home such as a living room, and the specific
appliances within the specific zone. It can also define
dependencies related to devices and appliances.
• Power Rules: are related to the electric power generation
from the electric utility or sequence of electric power to be
consumed for specific devices/appliances.
• Time Rules: define rules related to time such as peak time
rule with its time interval.
• Power-Time Rules: associates a defined power rule to a time
rule. This association may define the allowed power supply
for one home use or a group of homes for the specific time
interval.
 2016 International Conference on Consumer Electronics-Taiwan

Fig. 1. Conceptual Model for Power Management System in Smart Grids

• Resource-Time Rules: is the association between a defined

time and resource rules. Such rule for example, can
constrain the usage of specific appliances to a specific time.

III. PROTOTYPE IMPLEMENTATION

In this study, a microcontroller is used to simulate a smart
meter and acts as a gateway to enable the interaction between
the electric utility and homeowners. A web portal is
implemented to enable homeowners and the electric utility to
define their model, as well as, to register appliances, and
display the home appliances and their consumption. The user Fig. 2. Consumer Web Portal
has the option to control the registered appliances through the
web portal.
Figure 2 shows a home location in the map and presents the
registered appliances, the power consumption of each
appliance, and the total power consumed for the current
month. The points in the map are color coded based on the
home electricity consumption. A specific color can present a
home as within the safe consumption of the electric power
(such as green), while another color (such as red) can present a
house that is close to consume the allocated power by the
electric utility. The system will recommend the appliances to
be turned off by the user through the web portal. This
recommendation is based on the rules defined by the user.
Appliances will be turned off by the system if no action is
taken by the user to reduce the load. Fig. 3. Electric Utility Web Portal
Figure 3 shows the electric utility portal with a map
visibility in a specific housing community. The location REFERENCES
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978-1-5090-2073-7/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE