*Article* **Energy Management Expert Assistant, a New Concept**

**Matias Linan-Reyes \*, Joaquin Garrido-Zafra, Aurora Gil-de-Castro and Antonio Moreno-Munoz**

> Departamento de Ingeniería Electrónica y de Computadores, Escuela Politécnica Superior de Córdoba, Campus de Rabanales, Universidad de Córdoba, Edificio Leonardo Da Vinci, E-14071 Cordoba, Spain; p22gazaj@uco.es (J.G.-Z.); agil@uco.es (A.G.-d.-C.); amoreno@uco.es (A.M.-M.) **\*** Correspondence: matias@uco.es

**Abstract:** In recent years, interest in home energy managemen<sup>t</sup> systems (HEMS) has grown significantly, as well as the development of Voice Assistants that substantially increase home comfort. This paper presents a novel merging of HEMS with the Assistant paradigm. The combination of both concepts has allowed the creation of a high-performance and easy-to-manage expert system (ES). It has been developed in a framework that includes, on the one hand, the efficient energy managemen<sup>t</sup> functionality boosted with an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, where artificial intelligence (AI) and big data treatment are blended, and on the other hand, an assistant that interacts both with the user and with the HEMS itself. The creation of this ES has made it possible to optimize consumption levels, improve security, efficiency, comfort, and user experience, as well as home security (presence simulation or security against intruders), automate processes, optimize resources, and provide relevant information to the user facilitating decision making, all based on a multi-objective optimization (MOP) problem model. This paper presents both the scheme and the results obtained, the synergies generated, and the conclusions that can be drawn after 24 months of operation.

**Keywords:** home energy managemen<sup>t</sup> systems (HEMS); Internet of Things (IoT); artificial intelligence (AI); Voice Assistant; machine learning (ML); big data
