Track: Industry 4.0

Abstract

The objective of the paper is to motivate the readers towards finding implementable Internet of Things based solutions to existing well-researched engineering problems. Towards this end, this paper describes a portable and easy to use technology to enable consumers to shift their electricity consumption to times when the prices are low. This technology can be implemented on a platform that consists of a Belkin WeMo Smart Plug(WeMo), which can be autonomously turned on/off using an Intel Edison(Edison) through a WiFi connection. We use a simpleMarkov Model for predicting the real-time prices. Based on the predicted prices, a threshold-based policy is used for scheduling of devices. The choice of model and the scheduling algorithm is heavily influenced by the processing- and storage-capacity of this platform. Empirical analysis on real-data from Commonwealth Edison(ComEd), which is the largest electric utility in Illinois, shows that 90% of times, the customer paid no more than 1.5-1.6 times the omniscient-minimum electricity bill for a particular device usage requirement.