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Patent US10175681
Issued 2019-01-08
High Level Central Plant Optimization
An optimization system for a central plant includes a processing circuit configured to receive load prediction data indicating building energy loads and utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve the building energy loads. The optimization system includes a high level optimization module configured to generate an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over an optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment. The high level optimization module is configured to optimize the objective function over the optimization period subject to load equality constraints and capacity constraints on the central plant equipment to determine an optimal distribution of the building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment.
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- 1. An optimization and control system for a central plant configured to serve building energy loads, the optimization and control system comprising:
a central plant controller configured to receive utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps, the central plant controller comprising:
a load/rate prediction module configured to use feedback from a building automation system to predict the building energy loads for a plurality of time steps in an optimization period, the feedback from the building automation system comprising input from one or more sensors configured to monitor conditions within a controlled building; and
a high level optimization module configured to generate an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over the optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps;
wherein the high level optimization module is configured to optimize the objective function over the optimization period subject to load equality constraints and capacity constraints on the central plant equipment to determine an optimal distribution of the predicted building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps, wherein the load equality constraints ensure that the optimal distribution satisfies the predicted building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps;
wherein the central plant controller is configured to control the central plant equipment such that the central plant equipment operate to achieve the optimal distribution of the building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps.
- 9. A cascaded optimization and control system for a central plant configured to serve building energy loads, the cascaded optimization system comprising:
a central plant controller configured to use dynamic programming to split an optimization problem for the central plant into a high level optimization and a low level optimization, the central plant controller comprising:
a load/rate prediction module configured to use feedback from a building automation system to predict building energy loads for a plurality of time steps in an optimization period, the feedback from the building automation system comprising input from one or more sensors configured to monitor conditions within a controlled building;
a high level optimization module configured to perform the high level optimization, wherein the high level optimization comprises determining an optimal distribution of the predicted building energy loads over multiple groups of central plant equipment subject to load equality constraints that ensure the optimal distribution satisfies the predicted building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps; and
a low level optimization module configured to perform the low level optimization, wherein the low level optimization comprises determining optimal operating statuses for individual devices within each of the multiple groups of the central plant equipment;
wherein the central plant controller is configured to control the central plant equipment such that the central plant equipment operate to achieve the optimal distribution of the building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps.
- 12. A method for optimizing cost in a central plant configured to serve building energy loads, the method comprising:
using feedback from a building automation system to predict building energy loads for a plurality of time steps in an optimization period, the feedback from the building automation system comprising input from one or more sensors configured to monitor conditions within a controlled building; receiving, at a central plant controller, utility rate data indicating a price of one or more resources consumed by equipment of the central plant to serve the predicted building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps; generating, by a high level optimization module of the central plant controller, an objective function that expresses a total monetary cost of operating the central plant over the optimization period as a function of the utility rate data and an amount of the one or more resources consumed by the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps; optimizing, by the high level optimization module, the objective function over the optimization period subject to load equality constraints and capacity constraints on the central plant equipment to determine an optimal distribution of the predicted building energy loads over multiple groups of the central plant equipment at each of the plurality of time steps, wherein the load equality constraints ensure that the optimal distribution satisfies the predicted building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps; and controlling, by the central plant controller, the central plant equipment such that the central plant equipment operate to achieve the optimal distribution of the building energy loads at each of the plurality of time steps.
