Energy scheduling of a smart home under nonlinear pricing

The paper focuses on the scheduling of energy activities in smart homes equipped with controllable electrical appliances, renewable energy sources, dispatchable energy generators, and energy storage systems. We formulate a mixed integer quadratic programming energy scheduling algorithm for cost minimization under nonlinear pricing. The scheduling technique manages the use of electrical appliances, plans the energy production and supplying, and programs the storage systems charging/discharging. A case study simulated in different scenarios demonstrates that the approach allows full exploitation of the potential of local energy generation and storage to reduce the individual user energy consumption costs, while complying with the customer energy needs.