IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Talk: Physical and computational modeling of smart homes

Talk Topic:
Physical and computational modeling of smart homes
Abstract:
Novel “smart” technologies such as smart homes, smart grids, variable pricing, and local energy markets promise both better overall efficiency for the providers, a greener home, and lower prices. However, they also create unexpected problems. During the February 2021 North-American Ice Storm, the deregulated energy market in Texas came dangerously close to collapse, leading to rolling brownouts and loss of service in many homes that relied on electric power for heating. As a response, the variable pricing system shot up to $5000 per kilowatt hour, generating very high bills for customers who did not lose service. This behavior penalized customers but did nothing to help in the ongoing crisis. Although it did not happen on this occasion, a controller that would sell the home’s energy reserves to take advantage of the high pricing would be even more dangerous for customers facing freezing temperatures. The lesson we can learn from these events is that “smart” systems must be extensively tested, including for black swan events for which no previous data is available. In this talk, we discuss the need for extensive modeling and simulation for all the components of such homes, including the physical environment, the smart controllers, the behavior of the humans, and the external environment, including the smart grids and local energy market to which the systems connect.
Speaker(s): Professor Damla Turgut
Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/517639