Energy Management in Buildings: Lessons Learnt for Modeling and Advanced Control Design

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative analysis of different modeling and control techniques that can be used to tackle the energy efficiency and management problems in buildings. Multiple resources are considered, from generation to storage, distribution and delivery. In particular, it is shown what are the real needs and advantages in adopting different techniques, based on different applications, type of buildings, boundary conditions. This contribution is based widely on the experience performed by the authors in the recent years in dealing with existing residential, commercial and tertiary filed buildings, with application ranging from local temperature control up to smart grids where buildings are seen as an active node of the grid thanks to their ability to shape the thermal and electrical profile in real time. As for control models, a wide range of modeling techniques are here investigated and compared, from linear time-invariant models, to time-varying, to nonlinear ones. Similarly, control techniques include adaptive ones and real-time predictive ones.

An Overview of Emerging and Sustainable Technologies for Increased Energy Efficiency and Carbon Emission Mitigation in Buildings

“…The two-level design consisted of central aggregators that manage buildings and a system operator that coordinates the distribution network in a decentralized manner. Rastegarpour and Ferrarini [136] analyzed different modeling and control techniques to address building energy efficiency and management problems. The importance of adaptive control techniques and real-time predictive models in optimizing energy usage and integrating buildings into smart grids was highlighted.…”