Technology Description

The campus-scale EPMO system will be implemented as a stand-alone software environment, comprising control and diagnostic algorithms and performance visualization tools that will interface directly with the Naval Station Great Lakes Building Management System in Illinois. The key enabling technologies are (1) reduced-order dynamic models for the campus cooling plant, building, and HVAC systems; (2) optimal control algorithms for the district cooling system integrated with online parameter estimation to dynamically update control inputs; and (3) tools for online energy performance visualization and automated detection, isolation, and prioritization of faults that impact performance adversely. The technical challenges that must be overcome to provide a robust campus-scale EPMO system are (1) obtaining models of the cooling plant, buildings, and control systems that can be assembled rapidly and deployed easily in commercially available building management system platforms; (2) achieving energy consumption reduction through advanced controls when the loads and demand are highly uncertain and actuators are constrained; and (3) developing techniques for energy performance visualization and diagnostics to automatically detect and isolate faults that are responsible for system-level performance degradation. This project seeks to deliver a single platform and operator environment that integrates optimal control algorithms that use real-time data and predictive physics-based models, with performance monitoring and diagnostic tools that measure actual cooling plant and building energy performance.