A Model of Domestic Energy Management Enabling Low-cost Technology Duy Nguyen*, Michael Negnevisky*, Danchi Jiang* and Martin de Groot** * School of Engineering – University of Tasmania, Australia ** Tasmania ICT centre, Australia Emails: dtnguyen@utas.edu.au , Michael.Negnevitsky@utas.edu.au, danchi.jiang@utas.edu.au, martin.degroot@csiro.au Abstract- This paper focuses on designing process of a micro- controller based system with remote control interface to be used for Home Automation and demand-side Automatic Meter Reading (ARM). The system consists of a master node called Energy Modem (EM) and many slave nodes called Energy Appliance Controller (ECs). The bi-directional and asynchronous Power Line Communication (PLC) links among Energy Modem and Energy Load Controllers were successfully established. Energy metering, reporting, and control strategies are presented and several electrical protection features of this system are described in the thesis. System also provides the friendly remote user interface through the Global System for Mobile (GSM). The most potential perspective of this system is low-cost technologies associated with existing infrastructures. This thesis would explain ways to prevent the asynchronous transmission errors and data collusions during communication between Energy Modem and Energy Load Controllers. The general multi-path problems in communication have been solved for the low-cost PLC by using appropriate algorithms. A group of test was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of this new communication channel. Simple analysis is presented in this thesis to obtain the transmission error probability, and then some optimizations would be suggested for the future research. Key words– Demand Side Management (DSM), Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), Global System for Mobile (GSM), Smart Meter, Microgrid, Power Line Communication (PLC), Energy Consumption Monitoring, Domestic Control. I. INTRODUCTION Large scale power networks (grids) have been an area of continuous research and innovations for a long time. Consequently, there is a rich set of both theories and technologies for their control and management. However, control and management of small scale demand-side power networks (demand-side micro-grid) is still largely unexplored. With recent development of variety of sophisticated Power Line Communication (PLC) technologies and supporting microprocessors, it is technically and economically feasible to implement an intelligent management system for demand-side micro-grids that have previously only been practical for large scale networks. There are many interesting applications for intelligent demand-side communication, control, and management system. An immediate one is Home Automation and Electrical Protection. Today, a wide variety of electrical appliances are required to support our quality of life. However, those appliances are still operated individually with limited control, protection and fault reporting capacity. Control and functionality can be enhanced if there is a communication and management system connecting them. Another application is the Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), which is a technique to facilitate remote reading energy consumption. If an ARM system can be established within a small scale domestic power network (micro-grid), users will be able to improve their internal energy consuming processes and thus reduce the electricity bills [1]. Many utilities are now installing “smart meter” that also has communication and automated reporting capacity to a centre station. But this device is still less advantageous than domestic ARM since most domestic energy consumers do not have the technical expertise to handle “smart meter” and then follow the real time pricing information [1]. The above technical issues have motivated to the design of a workable and robust microcontroller-based domestic system (demand-side micro-grid) that can handle both Home Automation and domestic Automatic Meter Reading. In view of communication, this system consists of a master node called the Energy Modem (EM), and a set of slave nodes called the Energy Appliance Controller (ECs). The new terms EM and ECs refer to micro-grid enabling devices that can either complement or replace “smart meter” technology. EM performs overall management of micro-grid and information reporting from ECs through 100bits/s asynchronous Power Line Carrier, and handles external communication with a centre station. ECs mean the controllers that can be added to any domestic appliance at the power socket. Simple control functions are successfully implemented, such as on-off switches, timer set up. Some electrical protection features concerns with overload conditions, open-circuited current, and surge over-voltage. Information reported to EM includes regular energy consumption and fault detections. The Energy Modem is equipped with Short Message Service (SMS) transceiver to interface with Global System for Mobile (GSM) or 3 rd Generation (3G) network. This integration provides the remote control interface for the user. For instance, people can use their either their mobile phone or a remote computer to monitor their house and send simple commands to EM. Both EM and ECs are meant to be very cheap microprocessor-based devices that actually perform intelligent operations with high level of accuracy. In the other words, the 2008 Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference (AUPEC'08) Paper P-230 page 1