Real-world implementation and cost of a cloud-based MPC retrofit for HVAC control systems in commercial buildings

Many businesses are looking for ways to improve the energy and carbon usage of their buildings, partic-ularly through enhanced data collection and control schemes. In this context, this paper presents a case study of a food-retail building in the UK, detailing the design, installation and cost of a generalisable model predictive control (MPC) framework for its Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) sys-tem. The hardware/software solution to collect relevant data, as well as the formulation of the MPC scheme, is presented. By utilising cloud-based microservices, this approach can be applied to all modern building management systems with little upfront capital, and an ongoing monthly cost as low as $6.39/ -month. The MPC scheme calculates the optimal temperature setpoint required for each Air-Handling Unit (AHU) to minimise its overall cost or carbon usage, while ensuring thermal comfort of occupants. Its per-formance is then compared to the existing legacy controller using a simulation of the building's thermal behaviour. When simulated across two months the MPC approach performed better and achieved the same thermal comfort for a lower overall cost. The economic optimisation resulted in an energy saving of 650 kWh, with an associated cost savings of $240 (an improvement of 1.7% compared to the baseline), while the carbon optimisation gave negligible CO2 savings due to the inability of the building to shift heating to low-carbon periods. Findings from this study indicate the potential for improving building per-formance via MPC strategies, however the level of impact will depend on specific building attributes. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

This paper presents a case study on improving the energy and carbon usage of a food-retail building through the use of a generalisable model predictive control (MPC) framework. The study shows that the MPC approach can achieve a lower overall cost for the HVAC system while ensuring thermal comfort of occupants.