Real coded genetic algorithm in operational optimization of a district cooling system: An inceptive applicability assessment and power saving evaluation

District Cooling Systems are progressively becoming a standard feature of smart cities. This is attributed to their inherent feature of low operating cost and high energy efficiency. Given the constantly increasing energy prices worldwide and the target of the Conference of the Parties-28th Session for reducing emissions, the District Cooling System technology is quite promising in this direction. Various studies are available that have particularly focused on the design phase optimization of the systems, while in-process operational optimization is still in its miniature phase. This paper presents a model-based metaheuristic optimization approach to cooling water system towards an inceptive control strategy to explore and exploit the energy-saving potential using a Real Coded Genetic Algorithm. The Algorithm is implemented in MATLAB to search for high-performance settings in real-time scenarios. The results showed that an energy saving from 9.66% to 26.54% can be obtained across 6 cases in the study, compared to the supervisory control. Practical application District cooling technology is expected to gain more credibility as the most sustainable alternative to air conditioning in the upcoming decades due to the world’s rapidly expanding need for cooling combined with the need to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The current research and development efforts are yielding promising results for the fifth generation of this technology. Meanwhile, the study validates the enormous potential of operational optimization with contemporary artificial intelligence tools. This paper paves the way for future research by showing how the operation of a large-scale district cooling plant can be solved for energy saving.