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Smart homes have the potential to achieve efficient energy consumption: households can profit from appropriately scheduled consumption. By 2020, 35% of all households in North America and 20% in Europe are expected to become smart homes. Developing a smart home requires considerable investment, and the householders expect a positive return. In this context, this work addresses the following question: what and/or when equipment should be bought for a specific site to gain a positive return on the investment? This work proposes a framework to guide the smart-home transition considering customized electricity usage. The framework is based on linear models and gives a simple payback analysis of each combination of equipment acquisition for any specific user taking into account geographical location and local conditions. It also possible to use the framework for equipment sizing. The results quantify the dependence of the simple payback on the site and the application. • Modeling and optimization of the integration of smart home components. • General framework for the optimal set of smart appliances and investment timing. • Maximization of the return on investment. • Economic feasibility shown for three case studies in different countries using real data. • Quantification of the payback for each site and application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Hydro-Québec can provide annual storage ranging from 3 to 6 TW h for high VRE markets. • Price arbitraging with high VRE markets leads to sustainable changes for hydropower. • Hydropower maintenance flexibility will gain more value with VRE growth. • Revenues from price arbitraging with high VRE markets remain low. Northeastern North America is transitioning rapidly from fossil fuel generation to variable renewable energy (VRE) sources such as wind and solar. Their integration into electricity grids poses challenges in terms of matching supply with demand. Once VRE represent a large share of installed capacity, intermittency and variability of their production will become a major issue. Hydro-Québec, the public electric utility in the Canadian province of Québec, has a large hydropower generation fleet. Its storage capacity enables adjusting hydro production, when the system needs it, to support VRE integration. In this paper, potential impacts of VRE growth within neighbouring grids are simulated through operational production management models. The results show that Hydro-Québec has the potential to facilitate this energy transition but that the current electricity market structure does not provide incentives for an optimal contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]