Development and calibration of an online energy model for campus buildings

Previous studies show that building HVAC systems can consume greater than 20% more electrical energy than was the design intent largely because of equipment performance degradation, equipment failures, or detrimental interactions among subsystems. A key barrier is the lack of sufficient and detailed information to isolate abnormal changes in load conditions or anomalous equipment operations. One of the solutions is to develop model-based diagnostic methods. Hence, developing a calibrated energy performance model becomes a key component. In this paper, an integrated energy model for campus buildings was developed based on a Reduced-Order Model (ROM), which includes building envelope model, and HVAC primary and secondary system models. The integrated model was validated against real-time measured data within the ±15% error in terms of the load differences.