Appliance Scheduling in Smart Homes with Harmony Search Algorithm for Different Operation Time Intervals

Rapidly increasing population leads to increased electricity demand which ultimately requires Demand Side Management (DSM) to balance the electricity demand and supply in smart grid. Various techniques have been proposed by research community for Home Energy Management (HEM). In this study, we have used Harmony Search Algorithm (HSA) as an optimization technique to achieve four objectives: cost, PAR and waiting time minimization with user comfort maximization. HSA has been implemented in three different scenarios on the basis of varying Operation Time Intervals (OTIs) i.e., 05, 30 and 60 minutes. Simulation results showed that HSA performed much better as compared to un-schedule case and shorter OTI produced better results as compared to longer OTIs.