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NEED FOR CHANGE ENERGY CONSUMPTION AWARENESS Home based Micro Grid – the Nano Home Dipl.Ing. Andreas Poelzl, BSc, LL.B.(WU) University of Alberta, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Today we live in a time of growing awareness for our environment and growing willingness to protect and preserve our planet. The first thing that comes to mind in this context is the reduction of personal consumption of energy. In Canada the residential sector is responsible for roughly 20% of the total energy consumption 1 . Furthermore, according to Statistics Canada, the Consumer Price Index for Energy has risen by 57.9% since the year 2002 and an enormous 13.4% from August 2010 to August 2011 alone 2 . These factors make people want to take control of their energy consumption, many however do not yet have the means to do so at their disposal. Current regulations in Canada only allow Micro Grids under one single ownership, which poses a significant problem in large scale MG projects. Those projects that are feasible under single ownership, mostly institutional Micro Grids, however are seldom feasible due to cost/benefit considerations, which limits the opportunities for creating Micro Grids even further. As of today there is no comprehensive solution to Home Energy Management. The research we propose will combine home- generators (PV), energy storage (EV) and appliances (App) and integrate these systems together with a Home Area Network (HAN) into a complete Home Energy Generation-Storage- Consumption Management System that provides consumers with an easy to use interface that allows them to take control over energy savings in their homes. Such home based Micro Grids or “Nano Grids” could be the future form of energy use in residential homes and buildings and the results of the proposed research will be able to facilitate every activity of home owners related to energy generation, energy storage, energy consumption and energy savings. RESEARCH IN THIS SECTOR COMPLETE ENERGY MANAGEMENT • A system for Home Appliance Energy Monitoring and Controlling based on Powerline Communications is currently being researched by the University of Taipei, R.O.C. They developed a so called RMCPS (remote monitoring and controlling power socket) to monitor and control the power consumption of home appliances via power line communication 3 . • At the Aalborg University, Denmark, research is being conducted to create a universal communications protocol to interconnect all different subsystems in a home management system (lighting, heating, security,...) through an intelligent gateway called a Homeport 4 . • Researchers at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, are currently developing a “knowledge based intelligent energy management system” by utilizing home area networks (HAN) and building automation systems (BAS) to provide the user with real time feedback about their energy consumption and control mechanisms 5 . This list is by far not exhaustive and shall serve only as a reference as to how much research interest this sector currently enlists. Use Powerpoint charts PROPOSED RESEARCH References: 1) Statistics Canada, Energy Supply and Demand, http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/prim71-eng.htm 2) Statistics Canada, Consumer Price Index (monthly) http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/prim71-eng.htm 3) Lien; Bai; Chen; Hung; , "Home appliance energy monitoring and controlling based on Power Line Communication," Consumer Electronics, 2009. ICCE '09, pp.1-2, 10-14 Jan. 2009 4) Madsen, P.P.; , "HomePort: An intelligent home control system," Industrial Electronics and Applications, 2009. ICIEA 2009. 4th IEEE Conference on, pp. 2519-2523, 25-27 May 2009 5) Wicaksono, H.; Rogalski, S.; Kusnady, E.; , "Knowledge-based intelligent energy management using building automation system," IPEC, 2010 Conference Proceedings , vol., no., pp.1140-1145, 27-29 Oct. 2010 6) NEC – Empowered by Innovation – Solutions for Household Energy Management http://www.nec.com/global/environment/featured/business_vision/7_1/home.html 7) Microsoft, Technology helping to create Smart Grids to boost Energy Efficiency http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/may10/05-24smartgrid.mspx 8) Castle S., Green Tech Advocates – Encouraging Signs for Home Energy Management Systems, 07 Oct 2010 http://greentechadvocates.com/2010/10/07/encouraging-signs-for-home-energy- management-systems/ 6 7 8 5 PROBLEMS FACED BY INDUSTRY The upside to the limitations and problems for institutional Micro Grids however is, that they, intentionally or not, promote home- based Micro Grids or Nano Grids since homes are almost always under single ownership. With excellent social/ economical drivers emerging for this concept, like rising energy prices and consumers willing to take more control over their energy consumption, the time is ripe for a new solution in this sector. Over the last 5 years many large corporations like Intel or Google have identified customers needs to be able to monitor their energy consumption and to modify their own behavior to reduce it. To date however there is no solution that can claim to be a completely integrated system, most solutions seem to be making sacrifices on the whole concept by focusing on one or another specific aspect of Home Energy Management 4 . POSSIBLE SOLUTION Micro Grid HAN Nano Home PV EV App
