  More active participation of the demand side and efficient integration of
distributed energy resources (DERs) such as electric vehicles (trVs), energy
storage (ES), and renewable energy sources (RESs) into the existing power
systems are important design objectives of the future smart grid. In general,
effective demand side management (DSM) would benefit both system operators
(e.g., peak demand reduction) and electricity customers (e.g., cost saving).
For building and home energy scheduling design, heating, ventilation, and
air-conditioning (HVAC) systems play a very important role since HVAC power
consumption is very significant and the HVAC load can be scheduled flexibly
while still maintaining user comfort requirements. This thesis focuses on
energy scheduling design for two different application scenarios where HVAC and
various DERs are considered to optimize the benefits electric users.
