Model predictive control framework for operation of smart sustainable buildings

Buildings are a major contributor to global primary energy consumption and total greenhouse gas emissions. However, buildings have immense potential to improve the efficiency of the global energy sector. This paper investigates the use of model predictive control (MPC) for the operation of a large variety of energy devices in a building. The optimization problem is formulated as a mixed-integer-linear-program (MILP). Apart from cost minimization, an original feature of this works is that a novel sustainability criterion is implemented to maintain the net-zeroenergy (nZE) target of the building. The proposed framework is simulated with two different electricity price tariff structures. The simulation results showed a 12% reduction in energy cost for the proposed approach in comparison to the benchmark model when simulated for one month period.