Flexible Laststeuerung in Loxone: Entwicklung eines openADR-unterstützten Systems für effizientes Demand Response in hierarchischen Energiesystemen

Abstract

The increasing electrification and the growing share of renewable energy sources present complex challenges for the power grid of the future. To meet these demands, this work develops a hierarchical system for load distribution across different grid levels. This system is based on load profiles and market signals and aims to create a flexible and scalable node architecture that enables efficient load shifting. A central role is played by the integration of the Loxone home automation system, which allows precise control of energy consumption at the device level. The real-time control enables dynamic adjustment of energy consumption according to current grid requirements. For this purpose, Loxone is connected to the openADR protocol, ensuring automated and interoperable communication between grid operators and decentralized consumers. This allows adaptive control of individual consumers based on market signals and grid loads. The developed hierarchical system approach enables coordinated load distribution across multiple grid levels and thus contributes both to optimizing energy efficiency and improving the management of decentralized loads. The implementation demonstrates that energy consumption can be flexibly controlled without significantly burdening the hardware resources used. The evaluation of the implementation was initially conducted on a MacBook Pro with M1 Pro chip (10-core CPU and 16-core GPU), where low system utilization was already observed despite this powerful hardware environment. To verify practical feasibility under resource-constrained conditions, the application was subsequently run on a Raspberry Pi equipped with a Broadcom BCM2711 Quad-Core Cortex-A72 (ARM v8) 64-bit processor clocked at 1.8 GHz and 2 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. The measurements showed an average CPU load of 5.55 % and a memory usage of approximately 129.42 MiB. These results demonstrate that the developed solution can operate stably and resource-efficiently even on low-performance hardware, underscoring its potential use in energy-efficient, cost-sensitive environments. The combination of OpenADR and Loxone thus opens new possibilities for dynamic load control, enabling precise consumption adjustments at various grid levels. The developed concept thereby supports the sustainable integration of renewable energies while providing a scalable solution for the demands of the future power grid.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	German (Austria)
Supervisor	Stephan Selinger (Supervisor)