# Household Energy Management
## 4 Simulation Studies of the EEM Algorithm for a Single Household
### Environment for Evaluation of Energy Management Algorithms  
In order to be able to evaluate an energy management algorithm it is necessary to embed it in an environment that allows revealing the full potential of the algorithm. The real test sites often do not provide smart appliances or devoted participants in a number that allows testing of all the desired test scenarios. A solution for that issue is to create an artificial environment that simulates the users and their appliances and allows reflecting the electrical phenomena on a chosen level of detail; for instance, using emulation of the components constituting the electrical grid. We have such an emulation environment at hand, which also provides an execution opportunity for the management algorithms that allows reusing these in real deployments. In this section, we introduce the prosumer block--part of the in-lab Smart Grid Emulator [39], based on the e-balance energy management platform [40; 41], developed in the e-balance project [42]. Using the Smart Grid Emulator it is possible to create defined test cases that allow testing the performance and behavior of the implemented algorithms before heading for a real deployment. The emulator allows defining different grid topologies, built using connected blocks that represent different elements of the real grid, like the substations, transmission lines and prosumers. The advantage of this evaluation compared to pure simulations is that the platform emulates the grid by having real current flows between the blocks, allowing test scenarios related to the low level grid activities, like cut wires or shortcuts. It also allows testing algorithm implementations that can directly be applied in the real grid, within the e-balance platform. The prosumer block is the most important one from the perspective of evaluating energy-balancing algorithms that operate on the household level. This block emulates the grid for customers of any kind. This general block can represent a variety of grid elements that consume and/or produce energy. It may represent a single household or a DER, but it may also represent a complex neighborhood on the low voltage or the medium voltagegrid level. It consists of the energy consuming part and the energy producing part, allowing the emulationof real life energy generation and consumption dependent on time and weather conditions. Figure 9 depicts the prototype of the prosumer block. Conducting our experiments on the prosumer block instead of pure simulations gives us the opportunity to increase the level of realistic results obtained. It is possible to introduce additional control signals, like the change human behavior. Additionally, the most important aspect here is the later possibility of applying our results on a larger scale in a connected emulated grid with multiple prosumers and other grid components. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline \(t\_z\) & **Price per Energy** & **Duration \(t\_z\)** \\ \hline
1 & 0.27 PLN/kWh & from 00 to 07 or from 21 to 24 \\
2 & 0.51 PLN/kWh & from 07 to 10 or from 14 to 17 \\
3 & 0.91 PLN/kWh & from 10 to 14 or from 17 to 21 \\
1 & 0.27 PLN/kWh & Weekends and holidays \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: ToU pricing program design for individual \(t\_z\). In the prosumer block the energy consumption and production are separated. They meet at the junction between the block and the grid. The consuming part of the prototype consists of a set of switchable resistive loads (main type of load) and a capacitive and inductive load that can introduce phase shift.This allows emulating not only the active power, but also the reactive and apparent power introduced by the customer appliances. The part of the block that produces the energy can represent any kind of energy production that forces the energy into the grid. The sinus wave for the generated power can be influenced to emulate a diversity of energy quality scenarios.