Intra-day electro-thermal model predictive control for polygeneration systems in microgrids

This paper is framed within the context of intra-day optimal control of polygeneration systems and storage connected to microgrids. In particular, the paper proposes an optimal control strategy that accounts for both electrical and thermal processes taking place in multi-building energy networks. To this end, the proposed optimal control strategy, based on the use of a Model Predictive Control, has been developed with the aim of providing optimal resource set-points for the coming 24 h. The proposed approach takes into account: day-ahead and spot prices of electricity, resource prices in terms of fuel cost and shut-down, start-up costs as well as the presence of electrical and thermal storage. The ability of this thermo-electric optimal control strategy is then demonstrated through simulations considering three case studies, namely: (a)fixed electricity price, (b)electricity spot-price and (c)different seasonal cases. The paper also studies the shaving of peaks through the use of optimally sized units in a system with the proposed method.