A Supervised-Learning based Hour-Ahead Demand Response of a Behavior-based HEMS approximating MILP Optimization

TL;DR

This paper introduces a supervised learning approach using deep neural networks to approximate MILP optimization for hour-ahead demand response in home energy management systems, reducing energy costs without altering resident behavior.

Contribution

It develops a novel DNN-based method to predict optimal energy management actions, outperforming reinforcement learning and forecast-based strategies in real-world tests.

Findings

DNN-based strategy reduces daily energy costs effectively.

Proposed method outperforms reinforcement learning and forecast-based strategies.

Validated on three real homes with real-time environmental data.

Abstract

The demand response (DR) program of a traditional HEMS usually intervenes appliances by controlling or scheduling them to achieve multiple objectives such as minimizing energy cost and maximizing user comfort. In this study, instead of intervening appliances and changing resident behavior, our proposed strategy for hour-ahead DR firstly learns appliance use behavior of residents and then silently controls ESS and RES to minimize daily energy cost based on its knowledge. To accomplish the goal, our proposed deep neural networks (DNNs) models approximate MILP optimization by using supervised learning. The datasets for training DNNs are created from optimal outputs of a MILP solver with historical data. After training, at each time slot, these DNNs are used to control ESS and RES with real-time data of the surrounding environment. For comparison, we develop two different strategies named multi-agent reinforcement learning-based strategy, a kind of hour-ahead strategy and forecast-based MILP strategy, a kind of day-ahead strategy. For evaluation and verification, our proposed strategies are applied at three different real-world homes with real-world real-time global horizontal irradiation and real-world real-time prices. Numerical results verify that the proposed MILP-based supervised learning strategy is effective in term of daily energy cost and is the best one among three proposed strategies