Publications / 2013 Proceedings of the 30th ISARC, Montréal, Canada

Preliminary Implementation of a Predictive Control for Ventilation Systems in Metro Stations

M. Vaccarini, A. Carbonari, A. Giretti
Pages 922-929 (2013 Proceedings of the 30th ISARC, Montréal, Canada, ISBN 978-1-62993-294-1, ISSN 2413-5844)
Abstract:

In this paper a possible methodology to supplement a predictive control approach is reported. The benefits deriving from the application of a predictive control on complex buildings lay on its capability of adapting in advance to the conditioning needs of indoor environments. In fact, the mere reactive control is usually affected by response delays, mainly determined by latency intrinsic in systems and by the massive nature of buildings, which slows down their response to changeable inputs. Hence, systems are too often solicited at their maximum power to recover against comfort deficiencies, and high consumptions are had. This paper reports on the application of a predictive approach to the Passeig de Gracia (PdG) metro station in Barcelona, which is a considerably high energy demanding building and where ventilation systems are used to control both comfort and air quality. Although an extensive simulation for estimating energy savings obtainable through that approach is currently ongoing, in this paper we detail the several components which make up a “predictive control framework” and we perform a preliminary demonstrative simulation. In particular, the whole setup is formed by: a detailed model of PdG, which simulates the station’s “real state”; a control model, which optimizes a given cost-function; probabilistic predictive models to infer the future state of the systems, given the assumptions on the control actions by the control module. The outcomes of this paper show that the procedure is applicable and preliminary results over a short simulation horizon of half a day are reported.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, predictive control, building systems, metro stations