Discussion: Ruleset for smart energy distribution between solar power generation and electrical consumers

Problem statement:
Say, you have an electricity generation system, most likely a solar power plant and you would want to make maximum use of that power to minimize the power you draw from the grid. In the future it might also make sense to not just minimize the power you draw from the grid, but based on variable power tariffs, it might also make sense to decide whether to use the power directly or feed it into the grid based on those tariffs.

Next, you have a number of electrical consumers that you might want to start or delay based on the amount of available power from the solar generator. This could be your solar battery, an electric vehicle, your heating system (such as a heatpump that might also be used for producing hot water) or simple consumers such as your washing machine or tumble dryer. Let’s assume that those consumers can at least be switched on or off via openHAB. A more advance application might be to steer the energy consumption of those consumer along the amount of excess energy available from the solar power plant (i.e. regulating how much power the charger of the electric vehicle is given, or how much power you want to feed into the solar battery).

What I am looking for is a ruleset to basically combine high speed measurements of the power generation and usage (i.e. by means of an SMA Energy Meter or an Open Power Meter), combine it with some detailed weather forecast to have some idea about how much power we might be able to generate from the solar plant and steer the consumers accordingly. Ideally, you would want to set some conditions on how to use the power, such as: “Charge the e-car from excess power if possible, but make sure that it’s battery is full by 8am even if you have to resort to drawing power from the grid.” Or: “Start the washing machine if there is enough power, but make sure it completes its run by 10pm”

I think this kind of ruleset is something that could really be useful if you want to minimize your power bill.

Is anyone working on something similar or maybe even has a first implementation that they would be willing to discuss or share? I know that there are commercial solutions (such as the SMA Home Manager), but mostly those systems aren’t really flexible enough to accomodate the wide range of products that want to be controlled out there :).

a First implementation for one of the ideas is being discussed in this thread:

Use excess Photovoltaics Production intelligently