An asynchronous, distributed protocol for DC power management in a smart building

With the increase in home automation and control solutions through interconnected devices there is a greater interest for the development of more advanced home energy management systems (HEMS). In this paper we propose a Home Energy Management Multi-Agent (HEMMA) protocol to facilitate the distributed optimization of a HEMS. A distributed optimal power flow algorithm based on the method of multipliers is applied to the HEMMA protocol in order to optimize the problem of DC power supply to a smart building. Together, the distributed optimization strategy and HEMMA protocol implemented by agents in an Internet of Things are able to achieve a local optimum to the global problem while observing the voltage and power supply constraints of the DC power sources and servicing constant current and constant power loads.