Systems and Technologies for Smart Homes and Smart Grids

Dear Colleagues,

The wide spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) solutions, smart meters, low-cost smart sensors, and load devices is gaining momentum in modern Smart Grids, as well as their integration in home environments contributing to higher quality and simpler users’ lives. “Smart Home” refers to homes where physical and digital devices are interconnected in the cyber-space and are able to share information, thus forming a network that can assist users via remote home control, home automation systems, and ambient intelligence. Therefore, users’ comfort is the resulting primary goal in this framework. To reach the latter, an intelligent home environment has to ensure i) automation, by performing automatic functions; ii) multi-functionality, by generating different outcomes; iii) adaptability, by learning, predicting, and fitting users’ needs; iv) interactivity, by guaranteeing interaction among users and devices; and v) efficiency, by performing all the tasks with a good trade-off in between quality and costs. Moreover, Internet of Things (IoT) and ICTs are recognized as the potential key tools to promote energy usage reduction in the residential sector in a Smart Grids fashion. This new paradigm allows us to reduce the cost of users’ electricity bills and save energy with continuous prices and supply‒demand balance updates, load-shifting programs, and more efficient appliances.

This Special Issue of Electronics aims to present state-of-the-art papers in the domain of systems and technologies enabling Smart Home and Smart Grids concepts. We invite researchers to contribute innovative and original research papers or insightful review papers. Topics include, but are not limited to, the following areas:

• Home Automation Network;
• Integrated Wireless Technology (IWT);
• Home Energy Management System (HEMS);
• Smart Home Micro-Computer (SHMC);
• Home Automation (HA);
• Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) integration in Smart Grids;
• Demand‒Response approach;
• Systems and technologies enabling Smart Home and Smart Grids.

Prof. Dr. Amedeo Andreotti
Dr. Bianca Caiazzo
Guest Editors

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