Opportunities for Implementation of MPC in Commercial Buildings

AbstractCommercial and Institutional (C&I) buildings are responsible for approximately 20% of total energy consumption in North America, of which heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) accounts for around 50% in Canada and 30% in USA. As such, C&I buildings represent a substantial energy use reduction opportunity using new technologies. However, given that a building is principally to insure comfortable indoor conditions, it is critical that these requirements are not compromised. Model Predictive Control (MPC) is a growing field of research for operating buildings that takes advantage of changing internal and external conditions of a building to save energy, operating cost, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, while maintaining and potentially enhancing occupant comfort. The aims of this paper are twofold: a) to identify building characteristics that are beneficial to the performance of MPC strategies and provide explanation for their selection; and b) to provide detailed review of prototypical C&I building categories to identify those that are the most suitable for the application of MPC. C&I buildings that exhibit thermal mass, high solar gains, discrete occupancy periods, and the opportunity to vary temperature setpoints represent best candidates for MPC application. Offices and education buildings are best candidates based on their use profile, construction, and ubiquity