Model Predictive Control Prototyping and Validation for a Large Central Cooling System

In this paper we present an application of Model Predictive Control (MPC) to a commercial building cooling system. The MPC models are a combination of white, grey and black box models derived from the experimental dataset and ensure energy and mass conservation is the system. Individual equipment models are validated against the actual measurements to ensure they accurately represent the physical system. A comparison of MPC performance to that of a business-as-usual operation scenario indicates up to 25% savings in operating costs with MPC.