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A case study of economic optimization of HVAC systems based on the Stanford University campus airside and waterside systems.

Number: pap. 3132

Author(s) : PATEL N. R., RISBECK M. J., RAWLINGS J. B., et al.

Summary

Commercial buildings account for $200 billion per year in energy expenditures, with heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems accounting for most of these costs. In energy markets with time-varying prices and peak demand charges, a significant potential for cost savings is provided by using thermal energy storage to shift energy loads. Since most implementations of HVAC control systems do not optimize energy costs, they have become a primary focus for new strategies aimed at economic optimization. However, some industrial applications, such as large research centers or university campuses, are too large to be solved in a single MPC instance. Decompositions have been proposed in the literature, but it is difficult to evaluate and to compare decompositions against one another when using different systems. In this paper, we present a large-scale industrially relevant case study where solving a single MPC optimization problem is not feasible for real-time implementations. The study is loosely based on the Stanford University campus, consisting of both an airside and waterside system. The airside system includes 500 zones spread throughout 25 campus buildings along with the air handler units and regulatory building automation system used for temperature regulation. The waterside system includes the central plant equipment, such as chillers, that is used to meet the load from the buildings. Active thermal energy storage is also available to the campus. The models from this case study are made publicly available for other researchers interested in designing alternative control strategies for managing chilled water production to meet airside loads. The aim of the case study release is to provide a standardized problem for the research community and a benchmark for evaluating performance.

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Pages: 10

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Details

  • Original title: A case study of economic optimization of HVAC systems based on the Stanford University campus airside and waterside systems.
  • Record ID : 30024734
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Environment
  • Source: 2018 Purdue Conferences. 5th International High Performance Buildings Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2018/07/09

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