Volume 54

A Model Predictive Control Algorithm for Cost Optimization of a Building in Hybrid Heating System Ali Soleimani, Reza Malekian, Paul Davidsson

Abstract

With the increasing availability and affordability of building-integrated Heat Pumps (HPs), the number of heat pumps installed in residential buildings has risen significantly in recent years. When coupled with conventional District Heating (DH) systems in a hybrid setting, HPs provide higher energy reliability and cost-effective solutions for domestic heating. The operation of such systems, however, requires a sophisticated control system that simultaneously considers the dynamics of energy pricing and building energy needs. In this paper, we propose a nonlinear economic model predictive control to determine the optimal share for a hybrid DH-HP heating system. A resistor-capacitor thermal building model is utilized to capture the system dynamics. The results indicate that the proposed controller in the hybrid DH-HP system has a cost saving between 29% and 57% compared to the baseline scenario.

Keywords Model predictive control, Cost optimization, Hybrid energy system, Heat pump, District heating, Nonlinear