Open AccessA robust chiller sequencing control method for enhancing cooling supply reliability and energy efficiency
Author(s) -
Yundan Liao,
Zhenbing Cai,
Zhaosong Fang
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. materials science and engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1757-899X
pISSN - 1757-8981
DOI - 10.1088/1757-899x/609/5/052030
Subject(s) - trnsys , chiller , hvac , reliability (semiconductor) , efficient energy use , engineering , reliability engineering , air conditioning , control system , control engineering , control (management) , automotive engineering , energy (signal processing) , computer science , mechanical engineering , power (physics) , statistics , physics , mathematics , electrical engineering , quantum mechanics , artificial intelligence , thermodynamics
Control of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems (HVAC) has become an active area of research due to the significant energy expenditures and maintenance cost. Among the various controls of HVAC systems, chiller sequencing control is of great importance for multi-chiller plant to keep cooling reliability, system stability and energy efficiency. However, conventional chiller sequencing control usually lacks consideration of system stability and the accessional cost caused by the sequencing actions. Especially, those short-time or unnecessary sequencing actions become the main reason for operators to shut down automatic control. To enhance the reliability of chiller sequencing control, a robust hybrid predictive control is developed. This control is developed based on the typical total cooling load-based control and use an ARX prediction model to double check necessity of the sequencing actions. Case studies were carried out on a TRNSYS dynamic simulation with the configuration data from a real secondary school. Results showed that the switch number can be reduced more than 20% and operation cost can be reduced up to 4.25% without scarified in thermal comfort and energy efficiency.