Simulation-Based Performance Assessment for Building Automation Systems

International Conference on Efficiency, Cost, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Impact of Energy Systems (ECOS), pp. 1240–1251

Abstract

The operation of building energy systems contributes significantly to thermal comfort and energy efficiency.In turn, the operation is influenced by the control quality of local closed-loop controllers.However, in practice controllers are often commissioned without sufficient testing, due to the lack of time and budget, leading to reduced performance and energy efficiency.To facilitate controller testing and assessment, this work presents a three-step simulation-based testing method using little user input to provide an automated evaluation of the controller performance.For the assessment, a model of the controlled system is used to enable the evaluation of controller behavior for different scenarios.The controller performance is assessed in each scenario utilizing different Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).The model of the controlled system also allows the estimation of the optimal control behavior, which is used as reference control to provide further feedback for possible improvements to the user.All three steps are implemented and deployed as a cloud service allowing the controller under test to communicate with the controlled system model via an HTTP API.The testing method is applied to two different control loops of an air handling unit.The tested controllers show poor control quality when assessed with different KPIs.The results of the testing method provide direct improvements for both controllers.By applying these improvements to the two controllers, the control quality, assessed with the Integral Time-weighted Absolute Error (ITAE), was improved by 85 % and 63 % respectively.

Authors 3

1. Felix Stegemerten Aachen E.ON Energy Research Center Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

2. Maghnie Marwa Aachen E.ON Energy Research Center Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

3. Kümpel Alexander Aachen E.ON Energy Research Center Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   RWTH Aachen University, E.ON Energy Research Center, Institute for Energy Efficient Buildings and Indoor Climate