Economic model predictive control of building energy systems in cooperative optimization framework

In this work, we present a concept of cooperative optimization for building energy systems. In a cooperative optimization framework, climate control of a group of buildings connected to shared heat pumps is investigated using economic model predictive control (E-MPC). For comparison, two scenarios have been considered - a `selfish' optimization of an individual building and a `cooperative' optimization of a group of buildings. The benefits of cooperative optimization over selfish optimization are shown by analyzing the energy usage and total electricity cost for heat pumps operation. The proposed cooperative optimization approach is able to achieve up to 15% reduction in energy demand cost in comparison with selfish optimization. Hence, a cooperative optimization framework can play a significant role in advancing the concept of building climate control on a larger scale like districts or smart cities.