Operational Control of a Multi-energy District Heating System: Comparison of Model-Predictive Control and Rule-Based Control

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Descamps, Michael Nikhil, Lamaison, Nicolas, Vallee, Mathieu, Baviere, Roland
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866918062788182016
author Descamps, Michael Nikhil
Lamaison, Nicolas
Vallee, Mathieu
Baviere, Roland
author_facet Descamps, Michael Nikhil
Lamaison, Nicolas
Vallee, Mathieu
Baviere, Roland
contents This study focuses on operational control strategies for a multi-energy District Heating Network (DHN). Two control strategies are investigated and compared: (i) a reactive rule-based control (RBC) and (ii) a model predictive control (MPC). For the purpose of the study a small scale district heating network is modelled using Modelica. The production plant combines a heat pump, a gas boiler and a thermal solar field on the production side with a storage tank for flexibility purposes. On the consumption side, the virtual buildings are aggregated into a single consumer. We use our co-simulation and control platform, called Pegase, to implement the studied strategies. For both strategies the goal is to meet the consumers' demand while satisfying technical constraints. In addition MPC has the objective to minimize the operational costs, taking into account variable electricity prices and availability of solar thermal resource. Different scenarios are also defined and compared to study the effect of the heat plant sizing and forecasting error. The operational cost is reduced when switching from RBC to a MPC. As can be expected, MPC is more efficient when dealing with variable energy costs, intermittent solar energy and storage capabilities. This study also demonstrates how our tools enable an easy coupling of Modelica-based simulation with various control strategies. It especially supports the implementation and validation of complex MPC strategies in an efficient way, and yearly simulations are performed within 20 minutes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15197
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Operational Control of a Multi-energy District Heating System: Comparison of Model-Predictive Control and Rule-Based Control
Descamps, Michael Nikhil
Lamaison, Nicolas
Vallee, Mathieu
Baviere, Roland
Optimization and Control
This study focuses on operational control strategies for a multi-energy District Heating Network (DHN). Two control strategies are investigated and compared: (i) a reactive rule-based control (RBC) and (ii) a model predictive control (MPC). For the purpose of the study a small scale district heating network is modelled using Modelica. The production plant combines a heat pump, a gas boiler and a thermal solar field on the production side with a storage tank for flexibility purposes. On the consumption side, the virtual buildings are aggregated into a single consumer. We use our co-simulation and control platform, called Pegase, to implement the studied strategies. For both strategies the goal is to meet the consumers' demand while satisfying technical constraints. In addition MPC has the objective to minimize the operational costs, taking into account variable electricity prices and availability of solar thermal resource. Different scenarios are also defined and compared to study the effect of the heat plant sizing and forecasting error. The operational cost is reduced when switching from RBC to a MPC. As can be expected, MPC is more efficient when dealing with variable energy costs, intermittent solar energy and storage capabilities. This study also demonstrates how our tools enable an easy coupling of Modelica-based simulation with various control strategies. It especially supports the implementation and validation of complex MPC strategies in an efficient way, and yearly simulations are performed within 20 minutes.
title Operational Control of a Multi-energy District Heating System: Comparison of Model-Predictive Control and Rule-Based Control
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15197