Welcome to the first part of the interview with Istvan Papp, Professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad and VP Engineering at OBLO living. This is the first interview of the 5th season where Professor Istvan introduced us to the concept of Smart Homes and shared valuable insights about implementation of HEMS (Home Energy Management Systems).
What are the current results, challenges and predictions for the development of smart energy management in households, find out in the text below.
What is Smart Energy Management in Households and what are the differences compared to Smart Home from your perspective and your experience?
A Smart Home makes life easier and more comfortable. Over time, segments of security and safety have been added to this concept as well. Security involves sensors, alarms, and motion detectors, while safety includes detecting things like smoke and floods.
The usage of Smart Home technology is limited to individual houses, reflecting the unique habits and setups of each home. We aimed to find a common pattern for artificial intelligence to apply, but realized over time that each home is distinct.
Smart Home was once a luxury function from the perspective of the tenant but has other values for the real estate developer: it can be a differentiator and can lead to increased sales. For example, an investor can install a basic Smart Home system in a new building without much cost. This makes the apartments more attractive and easier to sell without significantly raising the price. A partner from EU gave us significant data, he found that installing these systems boosted his sales by 9%, speeding up his return on investment.
Our latest focus is on energy management – a concept we call HEMS (Home Energy Management Systems). Last year, we started developing this with partners who provided access to solar panels, batteries, and more. Our aim was to manage energy in Smart Homes effectively to benefit users.
Essentially, we were thinking about the value at the house level, since the house is the main focus of our platform. We collected data from devices like solar panels, batteries, smart meters, and smart sockets. With this data in hand, we implemented a range of strategies that can be used. One strategy reduces dependence on the electrical grid by using solar panels and batteries. Another strategy, for example, saves money by storing cheap energy in the battery and selling it back to the grid at peak times.
This is still within the scope of the house. I like to imagine the house as an autonomous unit that can control the local devices according to a certain strategy, driven by local goals.
What are your personal experiences regarding Smart Energy Management at Households so far? You are holding the position of VP Engineering, can you tell us a little bit more about work related to Smart Energy Management at Households in that area/group/organization?
We’ve particularly focused on HEMS because it offers more than just comfort – it helps with savings too. We haven’t entered the commercial stage yet, but we’re testing the concepts with pilot projects. I’ll give an example and explain why.
We initiated a project that involved managing heat pumps and air conditioning systems in households. The goal was to reduce the peaks of electricity consumption that occur when people return from work and massively turn on air conditioners and car chargers. By using a centralized system that analyzes data on temperature, humidity, energy production, and so on, the systems have enabled the prevention of peak consumption in very subtle ways, such as fine-tuning the temperature by an imperceptible half-degree or by pre-cooling spaces so they can be chilled in time, etc. The aim was greater energy efficiency without sacrificing user comfort.
The drawback of this project was its complex user experience, despite having a developed mobile app. My conclusion is that the main issue was the technology being too visible to the user. In my view, the real value of Smart Home systems and HEMS is for the user to only know they exist within their home and to benefit from lower electricity bills.
Another aspect, bringing together such diverse parties in this project didn’t turn out to be the best solution. On one side, we had scientists, on the other, energy distributors, then technology providers, and finally, the users.
On the other hand, let me share a successful pilot “peak shaving” project. This project is set up in a complex of several buildings, where all the apartments were similar and shared installations. At peak times, they use the battery as a backup, ensuring that there is no impact on the residents’ life and comfort. Moreover, they made a good deal with the utility company, securing a lower energy price for the entire block by guaranteeing that there would be no energy limit exceeding.
What do you think, what is the main purpose of Smart Energy Management?
Energy usage is definitely going to rise, it’s unavoidable. I’m also keeping an eye on the significant development in other forms of energy generation and storage. While every part of this system is growing, distribution is barely changing and is quite slow to adapt.
By using smart controls in the form of renewable energy, we could mostly solve this problem in smart homes.
It might be better for the energy distributors to limit how much power is used, setting a cap based on what the network can handle. This way, the power distributors wouldn’t control the smart home directly; they’d just set a maximum power usage limit. After that, the smart home would use its own systems to manage that energy, like distributing it to heat pump, EV charger, etc. This is the autonomy I mentioned earlier, and what we strive for with our solution.
Therefore, it would be much better if the smart meter could accept the consumption strategy or goal from utility, pass it on to the smart Some Home, which then fulfill the goal in a way most suitable for the local deployment and tenants.
What are the benefits for the key stakeholders (distribution companies, suppliers, homeowners, etc.) when using Smart Energy Management in households?
Starting with the user, the biggest benefit for them is reduced costs. Second benefit is stability, because we still face occasional power outages in Serbia. In such cases, solar panels and a battery serve as a reliable backup. This would be the first phase of benefits for the user. The next step could be using solar panels and batteries to cut electricity costs to zero, creating an energy-independent household. The final phase could go even further, allowing households to earn money by selling electricity back to the grid.
For distributors, if homes are equipped with HEMS and can communicate through their meters, distributors can adjust their power use and production as needed. If a user has HEMS, solar panels, and a battery, he can respond to the distributor’s requests.
Earning money by selling back electricity might not be much for an individual user, but for a supplier with thousands or millions of customers, it’s a different story. Every bit of energy counts, creating a strong interest for the supplier.
In Austria, there’s a move towards forming energy communities. People band together, not even necessarily geographically, to become both energy consumers and producers, essentially creating a collective power plant. They operate in the energy market as a single entity, leading to more significant impacts.
My conclusion is that suppliers and energy communities will need to cooperate more than trying to control each other. Most importantly, there needs to be someone who can manage and control both sides to ensure the stability of the network.
Conclusion
Adding HEMS (Home Energy Management Systems) to the Smart Homes concept goes beyond comfort as the main user benefit. It prioritizes reducing energy costs, moving towards energy independence, and even creates the potential for earnings.
Due to network balancing, distribution has a need to manage consumption on the customer’s side, and so far they have done this by directly managing devices in the household.
The energy distribution network adapts very slowly to the increasing number of distributed energy resources. As energy consumption increases and other forms of energy generation and storage develop, Smart Energy Management can significantly mitigate this issue.
Question for the audience
Is it better for the distribution companies, for network balancing purposes, to limit the consumer energy consumption instead of directly managing the household devices consumption?