Central plant control system with computation reduction based on graph theory

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10514178-B2
Application number	US-201816027132-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 3, 2018
Priority date	Jul 7, 2017
Publication date	Dec 24, 2019
Grant date	Dec 24, 2019

Abstract

Systems and methods for predicting a plurality of thermodynamic states of a plurality of heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) devices of an energy plant are disclosed. The system includes a processor and a non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions when executed causing the processor to: obtain plant netlist data describing the plurality of HVAC devices of the energy plant and connections of the plurality of HVAC devices to corresponding nodes; identify, from the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at a plurality of nodes, a reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states to be predicted based on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices; predict the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states using a non-linear solver; and determine the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant based on the reduced subset of the predicted thermodynamic states.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A controller for an energy plant, the controller comprising:
a processing circuit comprising a processor and memory storing instructions executed by the processor, the processing circuit configured to:
obtain plant netlist data describing a plurality of heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) devices of the energy plant and connections of the plurality of HVAC devices to corresponding nodes, each HVAC device configured to operate according to a corresponding operating parameter,
identify, from a plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at a plurality of nodes, a reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states to be predicted based on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices,
predict the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states using a non-linear solver,
determine the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at the plurality of nodes based on the reduced subset of predicted thermodynamic states,
determine a set of operating parameters of the plurality of HVAC devices based on the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at the plurality of nodes, and
operate the plurality of HVAC devices according to the set of operating parameters.

2. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of thermodynamic states include pressure values, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states by:
identifying a subset of the pressure values to be predicted based at least part on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices and irrespective of the set of operating parameters of the plurality of HVAC devices.

3. The controller of claim 2 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the subset of the pressure values by:
merging repetitive unknown pressure values based on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices.

4. The controller of claim 3 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to merge the repetitive unknown pressure values by:
reducing a number of the pressure values to be predicted based on pressure balance at each node of the plurality of HVAC devices.

5. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of thermodynamic states include mass flow values, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states by:
identifying a subset of the mass flow values to be predicted based at least part on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices.

6. The controller of claim 5 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the subset of the mass flow values by:
merging repetitive unknown mass flow values at selected nodes, each selected node connected to exactly two HVAC devices, and
propagating known mass flow values to predict one or more mass flow values by a linear solver.

7. The controller of claim 6 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to merge the repetitive unknown mass flow values by:
reducing a number of the mass flow values to be predicted based on mass flow balance at each node of the plurality of HVAC devices.

8. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of thermodynamic states include enthalpy values, and wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states by:
identifying a subset of the enthalpy values to be predicted based at least part on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices.

9. The controller of claim 8 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to identify the subset of the enthalpy values by:
merging repetitive unknown enthalpy values at selected nodes, each selected node having only a single input and any number of outputs, and
propagating known enthalpy values to predict one or more enthalpy values by a linear solver.

10. The controller of claim 9 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to merge the repetitive unknown enthalpy values by:
reducing a number of the enthalpy values to be predicted based on enthalpy balance at each node of the plurality of HVAC devices.

11. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to determine the set of operating parameters of the plurality of HVAC devices based on the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at the plurality of nodes by:
determining predicted power consumption of the energy plant operating according to the set of operating parameters based on the thermodynamic states,
comparing the predicted power consumption of the energy plant operating according to the set of operating parameters with another predicted power consumption of the energy plant operating according to another set of operating parameters, and
selecting the set of operating parameters of the plurality of HVAC devices rendering a lower power consumption.

12. The controller of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuit is configured to:
generate a weighted diagonal adjacency matrix indicating a directional property of unknown thermodynamic states, the processing circuit to identify the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states based on the weighted diagonal adjacency matrix.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions to predict a plurality of thermodynamic states of an energy plant at a plurality of nodes, the instructions when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
obtain plant netlist data describing a plurality of heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) devices of the energy plant and connections of the plurality of HVAC devices to corresponding nodes;
identify, from the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at the plurality of nodes, a reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states to be predicted based at least part on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices;
predict the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states using a non-linear solver; and
determine the plurality of thermodynamic states of the energy plant at the plurality of nodes based on the reduced subset of the predicted thermodynamic states.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 13 , wherein the plurality of thermodynamic states include pressure values, and wherein the instructions when executed by the one or more processors to identify the reduced subset of the plurality of thermodynamic states further comprise instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
identify a subset of the pressure values to be predicted based at least part on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices and irrespective of operating parameters of the plurality of HVAC devices.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the instructions when executed by the one or more processors to identify the subset of the pressure values further comprise instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
merge repetitive unknown pressure values based on the connections of the plurality of HVAC devices.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15 , wherein the instructions when executed by the one or more processors to merge the repetitive unknown pressure values further comprise instructions when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
reduce a number of the pressure values to be predicted based on pressure balance at each node of the plurality of HVAC devices.

Assignees

• Johnson Controls Tech Co

Inventors

• Willmott Graeme
• Asmus Matthew J

Classifications

• G05B2219/2642

  Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• F24F11/63 Primary

  Electronic processing · CPC title

• F24F11/46

  Improving electric energy efficiency or saving · CPC title

• G05B13/026

  using a predictor · CPC title