Practical PLC-Based Implementation of Adaptive Dynamic Matrix Controller for Energy-Efficient Control of Heat Sources

For the efficient control of industrial heat sources, adaptation to significant changes in operating conditions and in heat demand variations are the critical issues. This article presents the concept of the adaptive dynamic matrix controller dedicated to control of heat sources operated as a part of heat distribution systems. The adaptation is based on interpolation of the process nonlinearities. The implementation in programmable logic controller in the form of a general purpose function block is presented and practical issues of the minimization of the memory load and computational complexity are addressed. The suggested concept is experimentally validated by both virtual and real commissioning in the industrial conditions. The aspect of energy efficiency of the heat source control systems is also discussed and for assessment of the energy supply performance, the energy error index is proposed. In terms of this index, the results show superiority of the suggested controller over the conventional approaches.