NSPEMS: Neighbourhood sustainable parasitic energy management system

To cope with high energy demands, not only individual smart homes but the entire community must come forward to play its role in dealing with them. This paper introduces a Multi-Agent System (MAS)-based EM framework that involves the entire community of smart homes to obtain community- wide coordination and cooperation. In this respect, a Multi-Host Parasite Model (MHPM) is implemented, which is an extension of our previous work and is inspired by the multi-host-parasite relationships found in nature. Using the MHPM framework, NSPEMS maintains neighbourhood comfort without requiring direct user interaction or feedback while simultaneously achieving minimal energy costs, consumption, and a Peak-to-Average Ratio (PAR). NSPEMS adapts itself to its surrounding environment by checking the occupancy and weather conditions. It employs a Hall of Fame (HoF) mechanism to refine optimal solutions by incorporating the best schedules from previous days into current computations. Eight months of real-time data from the Western Massachusetts smart home community are used to validate NSPEMS. The results show significant reductions in cost, consumption, PAR, and discomfort in the neighbourhood, establishing NSPEMS as a sustainable and cost-effective EM solution.