This paper presents a comprehensive and general optimization-based home energy management controller, incorporating several classes of domestic appliances including deferrable, curtailable, thermal, and critical ones. The operations of the appliances are controlled in response to dynamic price signals to reduce the consumer's electricity bill whilst minimizing the daily volume of curtailed energy, and therefore considering the user's comfort level. To avoid shifting a large portion of consumer demand toward the least price intervals, which could create network issues due to loss of diversity, higher prices are applied when the consumer's demand goes beyond a prescribed power threshold. The arising mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem is solved in an iterative manner rolling throughout the day to follow the changes in the anticipated price signals and the variations in the controller inputs while information is updated. The results from different realistic case studies show the effectiveness of the proposed controller in minimizing the household's daily electricity bill while preserving comfort level, as well as preventing creation of new least-price peaks.

The primary driver for development of organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies is the prospect of very low cost module manufacture leading to affordable solar electricity. This paper presents an economic assessment of OPV based on an existing pre-industrial manufacturing process and the associated detailed material inventory. Using life cycle costing techniques, the life cycle investment cost for a 1kW_p, grid-connected OPV system is calculated, taking into account the materials, direct process energy, labour, balance of system components, design and maintenance costs. Assuming values for the performance ratio of the PV system, insolation level, inflation and interest rates, the levelised electricity cost (LEC) is calculated. Under an average solar irradiance of 1700 kWh/m²/year, typical of southern Europe, a LEC of between 0.19 €/kWh and 0.50 €/kWh was calculated for a 1kW_p system, based on modules containing 7% efficient cells and assuming a 5 year module lifetime. The OPV module is found to make up the majority of the system cost while the material costs constitute the largest contribution to the cost of the OPV module. The influence of OPV module lifetime is studied using sensitivity. This paper demonstrates that competitive solar electricity from OPV is within reach if efficiencies of ca. 7% already demonstrated in lab scale devices can be achieved in large area modules and if lifetimes of at least 5 years can be achieved.

Deficiencies in present-day loss allocation practices are demonstrated using as an example the substitution method presently applied in England and Wales to evaluate the impact of EG on losses. Two new loss allocation schemes are proposed; one based on the allocation of marginal losses and the other on the allocation of total losses. Loss allocation factors computed from the proposed schemes are specific to location and time of use. This is especially important for EG whose impact on losses varies in time and space. A notable feature of the proposed loss allocation coefficients is that they can be positive or negative and therefore can recognise the presence of counter-flows such as those due to the presence of EG. Application of the proposed loss allocation schemes is illustrated on a real network based 265-node generic distribution system model incorporating EG.