Comparison of MPC Formulations for Building Control under Commercial Time-of-Use Tariffs

Publication Type

Conference Paper

Date Published

01/2019

Authors

Abstract

Most medium and large commercial buildings in the U.S. are subject to complex electricity tariffs that combine both Time-of-Use (TOU) energy and demand charges. This study analyses the performances of different economic Model Predictive Control (MPC) formulations, from the standpoints of monthly bill reduction, load shifting, and peak demand reduction. Simulations are performed on many simplified commercial building models, with multiple TOU demand charges, and under various summer conditions. Results show that compared to energy-only MPC, the traditional method for dealing with demand charges significantly
reduces peak demand and owner bill, however, highlight a lack of load shifting capability. A proposed incremental approach
is presented, which better balances the bill components in the objective function. In the case study presented, this method
can improve monthly bill savings and increase load shifting during demand response events, while keeping a similarly low
peak demand, compared to traditional MPC methods taking into account demand charges.

Journal

IEEE PowerTech Milan 2019

Year of Publication

2019

Organization

Research Areas

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