This paper presents an event driven model predictive control approach for a local energy management system, enabling residential consumers to the automated participation in demand side management (DSM) programs. We consider a household equipped with smart appliances, a storage unit, electric vehicles and photovoltaic micro-generation. Resources are coordinated according to the needs of maximizing self-consumption and minimizing the cost of energy consumption, in a contractual scenario characterized by designed or market indexed pricing models, with DSM options. The control action (appliances' start times, the storage charging profile and the IEC 61851 compliant charging profile of the electric vehicles) is updated every time an event triggers the controller, such as a user request, a price/volume signal or the notification of a new forecast of micro-generation from the photovoltaic unit. The control framework is flexible enough to meet the real dynamics of a household and short-term grid requirements, while taking into account user preferences, contractual and technical constraints. A proper set of simulations validates the proposed approach. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.