More than one device
The system coordinates at least two independently controllable energy devices whose actions can affect each other.
Definition and examples
What is Home Power Automation?
Home Power Automation is the automatic coordination of two or more controllable systems that produce, store or use electricity in a home. It uses current device state, household requirements and changing conditions such as prices, weather and solar forecasts to decide what each system should do and when, then checks whether important actions worked.
Status of the term
GridPassport proposes Home Power Automation (HPA) as an open, protocol-neutral category term for this capability. It is not an industry standard, certification or GridPassport-only brand. Advanced HEMS already provide some or all of the capability described here.
In brief
Four properties define the capability.
A decision across time
It decides when to act using current state, deadlines and relevant forecasts or external signals.
Household limits
Comfort, EV readiness, battery reserve, equipment limits and manual control constrain the plan.
Action and confirmation
It carries out approved actions and reports whether they were accepted and, where measurable, achieved.
Why the term is useful
Device-level decisions can conflict.
Solar, a battery, an EV charger and heating can each work well alone. The household result depends on how their decisions interact over the same hours.
A battery and EV need the same cheap hours.
- Situation
- The EV needs 18 kWh by 07:00. The home battery is at 62%, with a protected reserve of 30%.
- Changing input
- Electricity is cheapest from 01:00 to 04:00, and the next day's solar forecast is weak.
- Shared decision
- Keep the protected battery reserve, schedule enough EV charging in the cheap window and update the remaining plan if the car, price or forecast changes.
- Confirmation
- Check that charging started, the reserve stayed above its limit and the EV reached its target by 07:00.
Why separate apps are not enough for this example
The charger knows the car's target. The battery controller knows its state. Neither necessarily knows the other's deadline and limits. HPA describes the shared decision process, not the app used to display it.
What goes into a decision
Devices, signals and household requirements are different things.
Keeping these categories separate makes the definition easier to test and avoids calling a tariff or forecast an energy device.
| Type | Examples | Role in the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Controllable devices | Battery inverter, EV charger, heat pump, air conditioner, electric water heater | Can receive an approved action or schedule within their operating limits. |
| Observed systems | Solar production, household load, grid import and export, room temperature | Describe the current state even when the source itself is not directly controlled. |
| Changing signals | Electricity prices, export rates, weather, solar forecast, grid or demand-response signal | Change the value or feasibility of an action over time. |
| Household requirements | EV ready by 07:00, 30% battery reserve, 20-22°C comfort range, manual pause | Set hard limits, deadlines and preferences the plan must respect or report as unmet. |
How it works
The system observes, plans, acts and checks.
A real implementation may use many services and control loops. These four functions describe the minimum process in plain language.
- Observe. Read device state, availability, site power and data quality.
- Plan. Use requirements, deadlines and relevant forecasts to resolve competing uses of energy.
- Act. Send allowed commands or schedules while device and installation safety controls remain authoritative.
- Check and recover. Record accepted, rejected, failed or stale actions; verify the result where telemetry allows it; replan when needed.
Technical detail
The proposed HPA functional model defines the system boundary, actors, information types, failure states and responsibility split in more detail.
When it is useful
Coordination matters when choices interact.
Likely to be useful
- A home has two or more flexible devices, such as a battery and EV charger.
- Prices, export rates or grid limits change through the day.
- Solar production must be allocated between storage, charging, heating and export.
- The household has deadlines or limits such as EV readiness, comfort or backup reserve.
- People repeatedly reconcile several device apps and schedules by hand.
May add little value
- The home has only one simple controllable energy device.
- A fixed schedule already meets the household's needs reliably.
- There is little variation in prices, generation, demand or device availability.
- The devices cannot expose useful state or accept safe external control.
- The cost and complexity of integration exceed the decisions available to automate.
Terminology
HPA describes a proposed capability, not a successor to HEMS.
The established terms remain useful. HPA adds a precise name for the behavior being proposed here.
| Term | What it describes | Relationship to HPA |
|---|---|---|
| EMS | A broad and sometimes ambiguous term for technical systems that monitor, control or optimize energy. | HPA concerns residential operation only; it does not replace the broader EMS term. |
| HEMS / CEMS | An established residential or customer energy-management system, with capabilities ranging from monitoring to multi-device optimization. | A sufficiently capable HEMS or CEMS may implement the complete proposed HPA profile. |
| Smart home | A wider field covering security, lighting, entertainment, comfort, appliances and energy. | A smart-home platform may provide HPA if it meets the energy coordination requirements. |
| HPA | A GridPassport-proposed category term and capability profile for automatic, time-aware coordination across controllable home energy devices. | It sets a testable capability threshold without prescribing one product, protocol or architecture. |
Important qualification
Advanced HEMS already coordinate several devices, forecasts and external signals. HPA does not claim to invent that engineering. It proposes a clearer name and explicit capability threshold for the household outcome. See the system and standards context.
Proposed capability threshold
What a system needs to do.
This is a working definition, not a certification checklist. A recommendation-only tool or single-device controller can support HPA, but does not provide the complete capability alone.
- Declare the household or site boundary and the measurements used for the shared state.
- Coordinate at least two independently controllable energy devices whose actions can affect one another.
- Use one time-dependent decision process with household requirements and relevant forecasts, deadlines or signals.
- Carry out approved actions automatically after the household enables the mode.
- Keep device and installation safety controls authoritative and provide manual pause or override.
- Distinguish accepted, rejected, failed and stale actions, and verify material outcomes when telemetry allows it.
- Record important decisions and use a defined safe fallback when data, communication or control is unavailable.
Limits
Automation depends on access, data and safe control.
A system can only coordinate devices it can observe and control. Forecasts can be wrong, clocks can drift, commands can be rejected and integrations can stop working after a software update.
Each device retains its manufacturer safety logic. Electrical protection, battery management, anti-islanding and HVAC safety controls remain outside the HPA decision layer.
HPA does not guarantee savings, carbon reduction, backup power or cross-brand support. Those are separate claims that require evidence for a specific product, home and test method.
A responsible implementation should disclose supported devices, data dependencies, control authority, privacy choices, fallback behavior and known limitations.
GridPassport
A product being developed with this model.
GridPassport aims to coordinate supported solar systems, batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps and air conditioners across household requirements and time. The product is an early implementation of the GridPassport-proposed model, not an independently certified reference implementation.
Current device access varies by manufacturer and model. Thecompatibility directory is the source for supported and planned integrations. The first deployment is retrospective scenario analysis from one home; it is not proof of closed-loop results for every household.
Further detail
The definition, architecture and evidence are separate.
FAQ
Common questions about Home Power Automation.
What is Home Power Automation?
Home Power Automation is the automatic coordination of two or more controllable systems that produce, store or use electricity in a home. It uses current device state, household requirements and changing conditions such as prices, weather and solar forecasts to decide what each system should do and when, then checks whether important actions worked.
Is Home Power Automation an industry standard?
No. GridPassport proposes Home Power Automation as an open, protocol-neutral category term for a defined capability. It is not a technical standard, certification or communication protocol.
Is Home Power Automation the same as a HEMS?
No. A Home Energy Management System, or HEMS, is an established type of residential energy system. Home Power Automation is a proposed capability profile that a HEMS or another residential coordinator may implement. Advanced HEMS already provide some or all of this capability.
Does a home need solar or a battery?
No single device is required. Home Power Automation becomes relevant when at least two controllable energy devices affect one another and benefit from a shared plan. Examples include a battery and EV charger, or a heat pump and electric water heater.
Does it require a dynamic electricity tariff?
No. A changing tariff creates useful timing decisions, but Home Power Automation can also coordinate solar use, EV readiness, comfort, battery reserve or peak power on a fixed tariff.
Does monitoring or recommending an action count as automation?
Not on its own. Monitoring and recommendations can support the process, but the proposed Home Power Automation profile requires approved actions to be carried out automatically, with manual override and visible failure states.
Does Home Power Automation guarantee lower bills?
No. Results depend on the equipment, tariff, weather, household use, available integrations and local rules. Cost should be reported alongside comfort, EV readiness, battery reserve and reliability.
Does it require AI, cloud software or a new hardware box?
No. Those are implementation choices. A system may run locally, in the cloud or in both places, and it may use rules, optimization, machine learning or a combination of methods.
Where does GridPassport fit?
GridPassport is being developed using the proposed Home Power Automation model. It aims to coordinate supported solar systems, batteries, EV chargers, heat pumps and air conditioners across time and household requirements.
Sources
Established work this proposal builds on.
These sources support the descriptions of HEMS and interoperability. They do not endorse the HPA term.
- IEA 4E EDNA: Residential HEMS and controllers
Defines HEMS broadly and describes monitoring, control and optimization across residential generation, storage and loads.
- ENERGY STAR: Smart Home Energy Management Systems criteria
Shows established requirements for connected devices, automated control, time-of-use response, user opt-out, privacy and field reporting.
- EEBUS: Energy-management solutions
Documents existing use cases for power limits, dynamic prices, flexibility and self-consumption optimization.
- Connectivity Standards Alliance: Matter 1.4 energy management
Describes interoperable energy features for solar, batteries, heat pumps, water heaters and EV charging.
Practical next step
Check the devices that could take part in a shared plan.
Compatibility is specific to manufacturer, model, region and available control interface. Start with the equipment already installed or planned for the home.