Facility Energy Control Using Simulated Power Consumption Scenarios
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional facility control systems rely heavily on expert analysis and experience for energy-saving controls, leading to inconsistent energy savings and a lengthy process for creating control scenarios, making it challenging to maintain constant energy efficiency across facilities.
Innovation Solution
A central control apparatus and facility control system that includes a controller with data collection, system setting, and energy usage simulation modules, allowing for the modeling of facility power consumption based on control scenarios, and determining optimal control combinations for energy reduction, enabling intuitive and efficient facility management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If expert analysis is used to create control scenarios for energy-saving control, then energy-saving control can be achieved, but the process takes a long time and energy savings are inconsistent
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the facility (virtual chiller) that replicates the physical facility's characteristics and operational behavior. This virtual model can be analyzed and optimized without affecting the actual facility, allowing rapid iteration of control scenarios. The virtual copy enables experts to test multiple control strategies quickly and select the most effective one, significantly reducing the time required to create control scenarios while maintaining consistent energy savings.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent performs preliminary analysis and optimization in the virtual environment before implementing control scenarios in the actual facility. By simulating different control strategies on the virtual chiller first, the system pre-determines the optimal control approach, avoiding lengthy trial-and-error processes on the actual facility. This preliminary action in the virtual model accelerates the overall control scenario development time while ensuring effective energy savings.
2Loss of energy
If expert analysis is used to create control scenarios, then energy-saving control can be implemented, but the energy saving effect varies depending on expert experience
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual facility copy serves as a standardized testing environment that eliminates variability introduced by different experts' analytical approaches. Multiple experts can analyze the same virtual model and arrive at consistent conclusions, reducing the dependence on individual expert experience. The virtual copy provides a common reference framework that ensures energy saving effects remain consistent across different expert analyses.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback mechanisms where the virtual facility's performance is continuously monitored and compared against target values. This feedback loop allows for objective evaluation of control scenarios based on actual performance data rather than subjective expert judgment. The feedback-driven approach ensures that energy-saving measures are consistently optimized regardless of which expert is performing the analysis.
3Loss of energy
If multiple control scenarios are tested to find optimal energy saving, then better energy efficiency can be achieved, but the process becomes more complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual facility enables parallel testing of multiple control scenarios without increasing physical system complexity. Experts can evaluate numerous control strategies on the virtual copy simultaneously, identifying the most effective approach while keeping the actual facility's control architecture simple. The virtual environment absorbs the complexity of scenario testing, allowing multiple scenarios to be compared without making the real system more complex.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual facility acts as an intermediary between control scenario development and actual facility implementation. Complex control logic and scenario testing are performed in the virtual environment, which mediates between the complexity of multiple control strategies and the simplicity required in the actual facility's control system. This intermediary approach allows sophisticated scenario evaluation while maintaining simple implementation in the physical system.
Data Source
AI summary
A central control apparatus may include a controller that includes a control program that when executed collecting data to obtain predicted environmental data including weather information about a target control area, setting information based on the collect data about at least one facility within the target control area, and simulating energy usage to generate a facility model based on the collected data of the at least one facility information and simulating power consumption of the facility model according to a control scenario. Additionally, the simulating of the energy usage may include determining energy reduction of the facility or target control area based on a simulation result of the power consumption of the facility model according to a combination of at least one control scenario, and determining the combination of at least one control scenario based on the energy reduction rate input through the input unit.