Using cooling load forecast as the optimal operation scheme for a large multi-chiller system

Energy saving is one of the most important issues in high-tech manufacturing industries, such as semiconductor and electronics, because large chilled water systems are used to satisfy big cooling load requirements. In this paper, a new optimal integrity scheme based on a two-stage strategy, including a scheduling stage and an operating stage, is proposed to minimize the system energy consumption within a future time period. Instead of a lag scheme used in the general method, a forecasting scheme consisting of a series of optimal schemes at each sub-time period is also proposed for the two-stage design. The performance of the proposed method is examined through an industrial case. The cost of the proposed method is much less than that of the conventional method, so the proposed method is cost-efficient in applications of large air-conditioning systems.