Rule-Based System for Intelligent Energy Management in Buildings

The widespread of distributed renewable energy is leading to an increased need for advanced energy management solutions in buildings. The variability of generation needs to be balanced by consumer flexibility, which needs to be accomplished by keeping the consumption cost as low as possible, while guaranteeing consumer comfort. This paper proposes a rule-based system with the aim of generating recommendations for actions regarding the energy management of different energy consumption devices, namely lights and air conditioning. The proposed set of rules considers the forecasted values of building generation, consumption, user presence in different rooms and energy prices. In this way, building energy management systems are endowed with increased adaptability and reliability considering the lowering of energy costs and maintenance of user comfort. Results, using real data from an office building, demonstrate the appropriateness of the proposed model in generating recommendations that are in line with current context.