A linear model predictive control for advanced building energy systems

Attempts to develop efficient and environmentally friendly building energy systems have led to modern complex energy concepts for buildings, which have consequently initiated a need for new control strategies for them. Model predictive control, which uses a system model to predict the future states of the system, offers a promising solution to this challenge. In this study, a model predictive control for modern complex building energy systems is developed. In order to keep the calculation times as short as possible, mixed integer linear programming is used to develop the model for the controller. The developed linear model predictive controller is evaluated by implementing it into a model of building using software-in-the-loop simulations. The building model represents a generic advanced building energy systems. The default controller of the case study is a mode-based controller, which is considered as the reference case for evaluation purposes. It is revealed that the developed linear predictive control could save up to 22, 5 % of energy consumption compared to the mode-based control.