Personalized Energy Reduction Cyber-physical System (PERCS): A Gamified End-User Platform for Energy Efficiency and Demand Response

The mission of the Personalized Energy Reduction Cyber-physical System (PERCS) is to create new possibilities for improving building operating efficiency, enhancing grid reliability, avoiding costly power interruptions, and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. PERCS proposes to achieve these outcomes by engaging building occupants as partners in a user-centered smart service platform. Using a non-intrusive load monitoring approach, PERCS uses a single sensing point in each home to capture smart electric meter data in real time. The household energy signal is disaggregated into individual load signatures of common appliances (e.g., air conditioners), yielding near real-time appliance-level energy information. Users interact with PERCS via a mobile phone platform that provides household-and appliance-level energy feedback, tailored recommendations, and a competitive game tied to energy use and behavioral changes. PERCS challenges traditional energy management approaches by directly engaging occupant as key elements in a technological system.