Home Energy Management System (HEMS)

A team of researchers from ATT, UTM led by Dr. Rozeha A.Rashid together with Dr. Mohd Adib Sarijari, Muhammad Rezan Resat, Abdul Hadi Fikri Abdul Hamid, Nur Hija Mahalin, Mohd Shahril Abdullah, Mohd Rozaini Abd Rahim and Hamdan Sayuti wanted to realize the Smart Grid vision through their project called Home Energy Management System (HEMS). They have developed the initial prototype on a different server but finally decided to migrate to a more powerful platform IoT platform from FAVORIOT.

The synopsis of their project as shown below.

Introduction

Electricity is named as the greatest invention of the 20th-century engineering achievements by the United States’ National Academy of Engineering. It has been recognized as a critical ingredient for the economy growth of a country. It is predicted that the world’s electric energy consumption will be significantly increased from years to years. According to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the worldwide energy consumption is going to increase 60% by 2030 and might be triple by 2050. Furthermore, according to the United States Energy Information Administration, the electric energy generation is projected to be as high as 35.2 trillion kWh in 2035 which is an increase of 62.1% from the year 2008.

Figure 1.0 Internet of Things (IoT) based HEMS

Domestic housing is identified as one of the major contributors to energy consumption. Therefore, a home energy management system (HEMS) offers a meaningful solution for homeowners to efficiently monitor and reduce their utility costs, of which is a big environmental bonus as well (i.e., fewer carbon emissions). Internet-of-Things (IoT) offers interconnection of home appliances with the owner as well as the utility companies through the internet so that the devices could be monitored and controlled from anywhere and at any time, as shown in Figure 1.

A forecast by Navigant Research reported that worldwide spending on energy management systems and services, including software components, will grow double from $11.3 billion in 2013 to $22.4 billion in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 10.3%. A global 2012 survey of 3,500 owners found that about 46 percent of respondents in the US and Canada plan to increase spending on energy-efficiency improvements.

Home Energy Management System (HEMS) Prototype

In this prototype system, three categories of energy billing are made available for the user to make a choice of according to their affordability.  For example, Category A is for monthly billing limit of RM40, Category B is for monthly billing limit of RM70 and Category C is open for customized setting.  Every category will have a different way of controlling the appliances to achieve the target power consumption within the set limit of monthly billing.

There are three modes for HEMS; mode A, mode B and mode C which directly correspond to the billing’s categories.  These modes are for controlling the usage of the appliances in HEMS depending on the respective chosen category.  If the set energy bill is high, then the allowable usage is also high and vice versa.

There are three important features implemented in the design HEMS to achieve an effective energy management monitoring and control according to the user’s preferred settings.  The features of the HEMS software solution are further explained in the following:

Demand Response (DR)

This feature allows for the appliances to be operated according to OFF/ON peak hour.  On peak hour is defined as the time of the day when the utility price is the highest.  Contrarily, the off peak hour is the time of the day when the utility charges are the lowest.  Additionally, this feature also enables minimized use of high-powered appliances such as washing machine, iron and kettle to a few times a day based on the chosen category of energy billing.

For example, a washing machine will be allowed for operation once or twice a day if category A or B of energy billing is selected respectively.  If the user wants more use than what is allowable, the system will turn off the washing machine and send a reminder to the user.  In short, this feature enforces the user to be more discipline in order to reduce their power usage.  The user can exclude the application of this feature from high-powered appliances such as the refrigerator as it needs to be powered up all the time.

Home automation

This feature facilitates the appliances controls for power saving according to the time of the day.  The hours are divided based on whether it’s night time when the ambiance is cooler but darker and vice versa for day time.  The time division is presented in Table 1.  A reset button is also made available for the user to manually override the setting if necessary.

Table 3: Appliances control according to the hours of the day. Level 3 indicator is the highest for the fan speed and lamp brightness, respectively

Customized setting for energy billing and other AMI-like functions

The customized setting is to allow the user to manage and plan their energy consumption and consequently monthly energy bills.  The setting can be made via the GUI on the main box.  Additionally, the user also can change the setting for demand response and automation services to other preferred settings.  The user might require the changes due to the environment and certain conditions.

For instance, a user might need to use the kettle more frequently for entertaining friends or guests but unable to do so because of the system control.  This can be overcome easily as the system allows the user to change the setting manually to enable operation of the kettle.  Figure 2-3 shows a fully functional HEMS testbed implemented with all the features discussed above with a proposed connection to the cloud via an IoT gateway for remote control and monitoring purposes.

Figure 2.0 HEMS testbed with FAVORIOT Cloud

Figure 3(a) Wireless-enabled Lamp

Figure 3 (b) Wireless-enabled Fan

Performance and Discussion

It is estimated that the charge of electricity during peak hour is 15% higher than an off-peak hour.  By managing the high powered appliances according to the DR and AMI-like features, the user can save up to 10% on their monthly utility cost.

Home automation feature helps the user controls the power consumption according to the time of the day.  For example, using the fan at the highest speed during sleeping hours from 12 a.m until 7 a.m can consume power up to 280W.  Whereas, due to the cooler temperature at that time, the feature will regulate the fan to a lower speed which it deems is enough for a comfortable sleep.  This might result in about 70W power saving or reduces the power usage by 25%.

The customized setting feature gives the user opportunity to synchronize their preferred settings with system control.  Even though this feature does not guarantee maximum saving as it cannot perform optimal control of the HEMS operation, it can provide assistance for the users to reduce costs by making informed decisions and plan their energy usage based on the power consumption information given.

Conclusion and Future plan

A HEM monitoring and control software solution are successfully integrated with the testbed to facilitate demand response by OFF/ON peak hour, home automation and three customized settings for energy billing. It is estimated that the system can promote 10% saving on utility bills and 25% energy saving due to their DR and AMI-like features. In general, the developed FA-HEMS is a likely solution for a greener and sustainable technology which in the long run will benefit the nation and future generation. The next plan can include:

• An energy meter to give the real amount of the power consumed in a home so that a realistic reaction of the proposed system can be observed.
• Adding physical sensors such as light and temperature sensors to enhance HEMS and home automation. For example, besides switching OFF/ON the light and fan according to demand response and preferred settings, a light sensor can help to control the lamp’s brightness while temperature sensor can regulate the fan speed according to the surrounding environment.

ATT’s Water Quality Monitoring System

Water quality and quantity vary from one place to another, and they are affected by ecological factors such as soil and air quality. In general, groundwater is considered more desirable for aquaculture because it has more consistent water quality than surface water and is less likely to be contaminated by pathogens of fish. Tropical fishes, for instance, are generally sensitive to poor water quality and therefore require fish farmers to have a higher level of water quality management mechanism. Ornamental fish are kept in a small confined spaces, and the buildup of nitrogenous waste requires additional care and measures to maintain a healthy stock. Regardless of the kind of water available on the species chosen, all fish depend entirely on the water to live, eat, grow and perform other bodily functions. Therefore, it is no surprise that the success of a fish-farming establishment depends greatly on its water quality management program. The focus of this research is more on monitoring the data collected and transmit wirelessly to a remote server via data packet.

Regardless of the kind of water available on the species chosen, all fish depend entirely on the water to live, eat, grow and perform other bodily functions. Therefore, it is no surprise that the success of a fish-farming establishment depends greatly on its water quality management program. The focus of this research is more on monitoring the data collected and transmit wirelessly to a remote server via data packet.

Dr. Sharifah Hafizah

Associate Professor Dr. Sharifah Hafizah Syed Ariffin from ATT, UTM led a team of researchers on a project to build a “Water Quality Monitoring System Using Wireless Sensor Network Wifi Based for Aquaculture Farming“. The team decided to migrate their system to FAVORIOT as the chosen IoT platform. This will allow for continuous enhancement to the system by extending the projects to other project students.

Double Parking Issues

The Smart Partnership

A group of researchers from Advanced Telecommunication Technology Research Group (ATT), Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Edward Chan Kam Fai, Gan Yi Reng, Leow Tan Chun Kit and Dr. Kamaludin Mohamad Yusof aims to solve one of the most problematic issues in cities i.e. illegal parking! The researchers also wanted a better way to manage the sensors and develop applications, and thus, they chose FAVORIOT as the IoT platform.

The Issues of Illegal Double Parking

Illegal double parking is one of the primary cause of horrible traffic congestion in many city centers. A visit is conducted from StarMetro to hotspots like Taipan Business Centre, USJ 10, Subang Jaya shows that road user blatantly ignored the No Parking and Towing Zone signboards that aimed to prevent double parking. Although Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ) has issued a total of 25,270 compound notices at 2012, the problem still hasn’t come to cease. In a report, from World Bank 12th Malaysia Economic Monitor, Malaysian typically motorist in Kuala Lumpur spends more than 250 million hours per year in traffic congestion. Traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur also cost over RM3,100 per motorist or over 1.1% of national GDP annually for the country. Of course, Malaysia is not sitting idly with respect to this situation.

For example, as Cyberjaya braces for the influx of population by 2018, we need to start resolving current city administration issues for better management of traffic flow. At the same time, the lack of parking space in open and public parking areas within Cyberjaya has resulted in teething congestion problems during peak hours. Lack of enforcement manpower by the local council and growing double parking problems is a common sight within Cyberjaya.  The City Innovation Council is actively discussing and reviewing ways to optimizing innovative technology to resolve teething city problems and increase the quality of life in Cyberjaya.

There are many initiatives by public and even private sectors to cope this problem. Building a robust public transport, encouraging cycling culture and introducing smart traffic light system, these are the efforts to alleviate the situation. Activation of smart social solutions by resolving city administration problems such as double parking using public empowerment, connected things, and communications technology. With more installation of sensors and smarter city applications in place, more opportunities for

We would like to see how technology can be designed to resolve a double parking problem by empowering the public, building management, and local council to cooperate by means of Internet of Things (IoT) or mobile smart devices. With more installation of sensors and smarter city applications in place, more opportunities for the smart city urban public services will be made available.

Figure 1.0 Operation Flow of ParkKing

The Solution – ParkKing

This project experiments innovative smart city solutions to improve urban public services. The project aims for the public, building management, and local council to cooperate, by setting up an integrated information platform with multi-source data that works with devices/things that resolve a particular city problem as a service.

The project is called Smart Parking with Automated Double Park Detection System (ParkKing) system with the objective to solve the problem of double parking (Figure 1). Apart from this, ParkKing also helps the drivers to locate the nearest available empty parking lot surround them. This will indirectly avoid the problem of double parking where drivers can find the empty parking nearby and park their vehicles properly.

In existing solution, the car detector is located at the center of the parking lot. However, ParkKing has its car detector sensor located 30cm inside from the boundary of the parking lot as shown in Figure 2. This is so that it can detect whether there is an available parking in the lot or there is a car double-parked outside. Next, there is a transceiver gateway installed at the lamp post which can connect up to 20 car detectors of parking lots. When it detect a presence of a car either it is in the parking lot or double-parked car, it will send the data to the control server of the system. For the drivers, there will be a smartphone application which will locate the nearest empty parking lot. When the ParkKing system detects a double-parked car, it will send to the FAVORIOT platform and notify the authority to tow the vehicle away.

Figure 2.0 Placement of the Car Detector Sensor

We believe that the integration of ParkKing system with the existing smart traffic light system and intelligent parking system will bring us a smart management transport system for a smart city.

With the presence of our ParkKing system, we can have an automated double parking detector to ease the management or the local authority of Cyberjaya. Next, we also show the road users in Cyberjaya to the nearest available parking lot available. Thus, they will not simply double-park their car. Besides, after notifying the authority, they can tow the double parked car to warn the drivers and other road users not to double park next time. This is very significant because when there are cars double-parked, it causes traffic congestion. When traffic jam, actually government is spending more money to subsidize the petrol since traffic jam causes a higher petrol consumption.

Future Plans

Apart from what have been mentioned above, we do consider the future development of this project. In future, we can install a camera at the lamp post so that to identify the double-park car’s number plate and match with the data in Jabatan Pengangkutan Jalan Malaysia (JPJ) database using OpenCV for object recognition system. Then, it will send a penalty to the car owner. Besides, we also think of to obtain the car parking data like the period of parking. Typically, customers would want to park at the nearest space to shop. So, to help to reduce the problem of insufficient parking space, we plan to have a car park for those who wish to park extended period and limit the time of parking on the street. This can be done by obtaining the time of parking using our ParkKing system. With this, users will have a better customer experience where they get to find parking easily and bring business opportunity to the shops nearby. In our future plan, we also want to integrate our ParkKing system with an automated parking fee payment system to replace the current parking coupon system. This ParkKing system will also be a liability for the management, but we can generate income by co-operating with the shop or company nearby not only to cover the maintenance fees but become a passive income as well! For future development, this ParkKing system can contribute to traffic flow prediction by using the big data concept. By having traffic flow forecasting, we can definitely have a well thought-out town planning.

About ATT

Advanced Telecommunication Technology (ATT) research group is composed of researchers in the field of network communication. In line with the research theme of Internet of Everything (IoE) solutions, the research activities are divided into two main research teams which are the pervasive networks and networks computing & security. Contact: att@fke.utm.my

About FAVORIOT

FAVORIOT offers an IOT platform specifically designed for any Internet of Things (IoT) projects. The platform is developed to support the integration of data from sensors and actuators on the internet. Collecting and storing data from IOT devices become much easier. Moreover, the platform also helps developers in building vertical applications without worry about the hosting. Contact: info@favoriot.com | Website: http://www.favoriot.com