Centralized model predictive control strategy for thermal comfort and residential energy management

A novel implementation strategy of a centralized model predictive control (MPC) is proposed for a zone based comfort and energy management in a residential building. A photovoltaic (PV) solar system and a stationary home battery unit are considered. A heat pump (HP) is used as the primary heating unit. The electric baseboards (BB) are used as a supplementary system. The MPC controls the HP and BB power inputs for comfort management, as well as the energy flow among the PV, the battery and the bidirectional grid system. Variable Time-of-Use (ToU) rates are considered for the energy cost calculation and Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) is considered for selling energy to the grid. A 13.5% reduction in the energy cost is achieved with the centralized MPC as compared to a rule based energy management strategy. The solar energy generation and battery storage contribute to approximately 31% saving. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.