IEEE Pervasive Computing 10 (1): Special Issue on Smart Energy Systems

I been reading more from the special issue on smart energy systems. Here are my thoughts:

Paradiso J, Dutta P, Gellersen H, Schooler E. Guest Editorsʼ Introduction: Smart Energy Systems. Pervasive Computing, IEEE. 2011;10(1):11-12.

This introductory article provides an overall motivation for the application of smart energy systems within the domestic environment. In doing so, it describes the need for agent controlled energy systems and a motivation to study human-agent interaction within the domestic energy domain.

Sundramoorthy V, Cooper G, Linge N, Liu Q. Domesticating Energy-Monitoring Systems: Challenges and Design Concerns. Pervasive Computing, IEEE. 2011;10(1):20-27.

This article focuses on how domestic energy monitoring systems can induce positive behavioural change. The authors report findings from the first of three stages of deployment. The first stage involved the installation of household aggregate electricity meters to 77 houses in the UK. The hardware used was the CurrentCost clamp-on meters, which collected power readings every six seconds. The next stage of deployment will involve the installation of household aggregate electricity meters on more houses in addition to 10 individual appliance sub-meters. The aim is to deploy this equipment in 250 houses in the UK and Bulgaria.

Although the focus of the article was on energy feedback technology, it raised many points of interest to the field of non-intrusive load monitoring. Most interesting. the next deployment stage will investigate the financial evaluation of deployment appliance sub-meters. This will provide a clear motivation for NILM should the study find that the cost of deployment exceeds the financial savings through reduction of energy consumption. The article also covers areas of interest to NILM, such as consumer energy awareness and data privacy.

Next on my list of things to read are three papers directly related to NILM:

• Froehlich J, Larson E, Gupta S, et al. Disaggregated End-Use Energy Sensing for the Smart Grid. Pervasive Computing, IEEE. 2011;10(1):28-39.
• Marchiori A, Hakkarinen D, Han Q, Earle L. Circuit-Level Load Monitoring for Household Energy Management. Pervasive Computing, IEEE. 2011;10(1):40-48.
• Bergman DC, Jin D, Juen JP, et al. Nonintrusive Load-Shed Verification. Pervasive Computing, IEEE. 2011;10(1):49-57.