The design and implementation of a smart tap for policy-based power management

To cope with the recent increase of energy consumption in homes and to achieve efficient usage of the distributed power generation, there has arisen a novel concept of i-Energy home energy management. Toward realizing it, the authors have designed and implemented a smart tap, an intelligent power strip with communication, power sensing and control functions. The power management done by the smart tap is policy-based so that users can set versatile policies depending on their preferences. As an application of the policy-based power management, the authors have implemented a software-based breaker function on the smart tap.